


What Do You Want?

by VampireMadonna



Series: Crave [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Brett is a sweetie, Canon-Typical Violence, Liam learns about feelings, M/M, Mason is sunshine, Yoda Scott, Yoda Stiles, and that sexuality isn't as black and white as society would have you believe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-03
Updated: 2015-09-10
Packaged: 2018-04-12 19:25:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 4
Words: 27,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4491804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VampireMadonna/pseuds/VampireMadonna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One night at Sinema changed Liam's life forever. He may or may not be having a hard time accepting that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This picks up directly from "What I Want" so if you haven't read that, you definitely should before reading this.

If someone had told Liam that the things that occurred during his sophomore year were even a remote possibility, he would’ve scoffed in their face and rearranged their jaw, especially the latter since when the year began, his I.E.D. had still been out of control.

Now, though…The person he’d once been and the person he was today were absolute strangers, polar opposites of one another. Well…maybe not entirely. He’d always had a hair-trigger temper and probably always would but nowadays he only allowed that side of him to take over when his or the life of one of the people he cared about was in danger which, unfortunately, was terribly often.

Still…he wouldn’t have it any other way.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Liam lay on his bed staring up at the ceiling, trying his best not to think about the unthinkable.

It was hard, though. He truly believed that it was better that he didn’t remember what had happened two nights ago but his natural curiosity, and perhaps something else that he couldn’t quite put a name to, wouldn’t let him leave it alone entirely.

Sighing, he started counting the spots on his ceiling for about the tenth time.

_“Liam?”_

“Upstairs!” he called back.

A quick glance at his alarm clock showed that Mason was right on time. It was 4:00pm on the dot.

He’d let himself in with his key, something that had become a necessity back when Liam had transferred from Beacon Hills Middle School to Devenford Prep after _the incident_ , aka, the fight that had made him Hayden’s mortal enemy. Devenford was further away than BHMS had been so on the days that Liam’s mom wasn’t home and Mason was coming over, he would let himself in, get a snack and wait in Liam’s room until the bus dropped him off. Mason was his bro for life and there was no one he trusted more so there’d been no doubt in his or his mom’s mind that giving him a key was the sensible thing to do.

Being reminded of _the incident_ always soured his stomach a little. There was so much embarrassment attached to it. His I.E.D. had been undiagnosed at the time but even so, he hated having that as his legacy in middle school.

Devenford had been a second chance for him after his mom had been “advised” to remove him from the public school system. She’d assumed, _hoped_ , that a more structured environment would do him some good. It had, to some extent. Devenford was way more competitive than public school had been, with the kids constantly trying to one-up one another, to be the best, and Liam had been able to channel his excess energies into it. It was what had made him so good at lacrosse. It had, however, also enabled him to tap into that over-flowing reservoir of anger that he’d apparently been unknowingly carrying around for years. When he’d flipped and destroyed his coach’s car, it had been a rude awakening for everyone, himself and his parents particularly. No one, not even he, had realized just how bad his disease was.

It made sense, therefore, why Stiles would assume that being bitten was the worst possible thing that could have happened to him but interestingly enough, the opposite seemed to be true. Back when he’d been a mere human, damaging things had been his way of venting, of expressing himself. He’d picked fights, knowing that he could hurt others but also knowing that he would get his fair share of licks as well, craving it almost. Now, however, he was always aware of just how much damage he could really inflict if he was of a mind to. That awareness kept him grounded, constantly reminding him that although he was capable of monstrous things, certainly had the strength to achieve it, he wasn’t in fact and didn’t want to be a monster. Beacon Hills High and Scott were his third chance. He was determined not to mess that up.

“’Sup, dude?” Mason greeted as he strode into his room.

“Hey,” Liam replied, tilting his head to look at his friend.

They’d spoken many times since the previous morning when he’d sent both Mason and Brett packing but they hadn’t seen each other until now.

“What are we doing?” Mason asked, flopping onto the bed beside him.

“Nothing,” he muttered. “Thinking.”

Mason remained quiet for a moment too long and Liam turned his head to cast a glance at him.

“What?”

“Nothing, I was just wondering… Did you remember anything else?” he asked cautiously.

“No.” That one word had a ring of finality to it. Case closed. End of discussion.

Of course Mason being Mason totally ignored Liam’s hint. “Li…I really think we should talk. Let me tell you what happened, at least.”

Liam sat up abruptly, blue eyes hardening. “No! I…it doesn’t matter, okay?”

Mason sat up too, his expression saying everything that his mouth wasn’t. “Have you spoken to Brett?”

Liam’s eyes unconsciously darted to his phone on the bedside table, thinking about the unread messages and unanswered calls it held. “No.” He frowned. “Have you?”

Mason waited a beat before answering. “Yeah. We talked when I dropped him off yesterday. And he came over for a bit last night.”

Liam’s heart clenched in his chest, an unusual feeling that he had no idea how to interpret. “Oh. I see.”

“Nothing happened if that’s what you’re wondering,” Mason added, his expression speculative.

Liam’s gaze dropped to his bedspread. “It doesn’t matter. You’re free to do as you please. _Both_ of you.”

“Liam…”

“What?” Liam forced himself to look at Mason, forced the words past his lips. “You like him, I know you do. And he’s clearly into you if he came home with you and did…stuff. You should be happy.”

“He didn’t just come home with _me_ ,” Mason pointed out. “Brett’s a great guy, sure, and we had fun the other night, I’m not going to deny that. But as for anything more…I’m pretty sure that I’m not his type. Friday was a one-time deal.”

Liam’s frown returned, deeper than before. “What do you mean?”

“Just because we both like guys doesn’t automatically make us compatible, Li. Chemistry works the same for us homos as it does for you straights.”

“I know that,” Liam snapped, insulted by the insinuation. “But you basically slept together so that has to mean something.”

“We were drunk and high. We had fun.” Mason shrugged. “It doesn’t mean we have to settle down and have a family now. He’s not the first guy that I’ve hooked up with and he won’t be the last.”

Liam’s jaw dropped. “What?”

A faint blush appeared in Mason’s cheeks and he rubbed the back of his head nervously. “Before I say anything else, I just want you to know that I don’t make a habit of it. I have been to Sinema before and I always have a good time. I just really wanted some company this time around. Usually it’s just me and maybe I’ll get lucky and meet someone. We’ll dance, make out, and that’s it. I go home alone to my house, not theirs. I’m not looking for random sex with strangers. I’d much rather have a steady boyfriend, you know that. It’s just that sometimes…Well, when you’re lonely, sometimes you don’t see anything wrong with taking what you can get in the moment.”

“Making out isn’t exactly hooking up,” Liam pointed out.

“Well…” Mason’s blush deepened. “There was one occasion where things got pretty hot and heavy with a guy in the bathroom and…stuff happened. Of the oral variety. I really surprised myself that time and I’ve made sure it’s never happened again. Not until Friday, that is.”

“Mason…” Liam was in partial shock, so much so that it was easy to ignore Mason’s last sentence and what it implied about what had taken place. “It’s not safe out there.”

“I know, trust me. And I’ve made sure nothing’s ever gone that far since. But Friday…that was different. I knew that the chances of you guys giving me something were the same as me infecting you: nil. You can’t get safer than absolute certainty.” Mason had the audacity to grin. Cheeky bastard.

“That’s not funny,” Liam groused.

Mason sighed. “I really wish you’d just let me tell you what happened. I think you’d feel much better if you did.”

“I highly doubt it,” Liam muttered, already mentally battling the image of Brett hovering above him as it threatened to fill his thoughts again. The memory simply wouldn’t go away and stay away.

“You should talk to Brett then,” Mason reasoned. “He hasn’t done anything wrong, Li. It’s not fair to treat him like some pariah. If we can patch things up then you can do the same with him.”

“We were never friends,” Liam argued. “It’s not the same.”

“I still think you should talk to him,” Mason pressed.

“Why?” Liam snapped, irritation quickly turning to anger. “Why are you pushing this so hard?”

“Because I think you need to. I suspect that if you talk to him, you’ll probably feel…enlightened.”

Liam frowned, not sure exactly what he meant by that. Not that he cared. Not that it mattered.

“Well, I don’t _want_ to, okay? Now just drop it, please.”

Mason gave him a long, considering look before sighing, seemingly defeated. “Fine.”

Liam nodded. He’d won this battle but he knew his friend. Mason was persistent and wouldn’t leave him be until Liam knew every sordid detail about what had happened.

“So…COD or GTA?” he asked, slipping off the bed and walking over to his game console.

Mason’s eyes narrowed. “COD. I really feel like killing you right now.”

Liam’s lips twitched in amusement.

God, he loved Mason. He was the truest of friends.

 

 

Monday came and went, as did Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

 _SSDD_.

For once, he was grateful for the monotony of his life. Not that it was that monotonous, to be honest.

There was school, which he was only just average at; there was lacrosse, which he was pretty badass at, in his opinion, except for when he feared or felt himself losing control. That was never a good time for anybody. He’d lost count of the number of cold showers he’d had in the locker room, pressed against the hard tiles by Scott and Stiles’ restraining hands. Thankfully, there’d been no such episodes this week. Maybe he was finally getting a handle on his I.E.D. The thought was uplifting. Then there was the fact that there were were-creatures lurking in the gloom, just waiting to pop out and maim them. They didn’t know how many nor what kinds and they’d made very little headway in finding out. Finally, there was Hayden. While she still shot daggers at him with her eyes, she hadn’t uttered a single snide or vitriolic comment in his direction the entire week. That was progress as far as he was concerned. Still, he was determined to pay back the money he’d cost her and had already saved $43 doing chores around the house and helping out his dad.

When Friday rolled around and Mason _casually_ suggested returning to Sinema, Liam simply looked at him. No words were necessary beyond that and Mason didn’t press.

It was around 6:00pm, as he lay in bed counting the spots on his ceiling again, that he found himself reconsidering. It wasn’t that he _wanted_ to go to Sinema, of course not, but he didn’t like the idea of Mason being there alone, especially after his recent confession. He trusted his friend but people made mistakes all the time. Suppose some guy caught Mason in a moment of weakness and took advantage of him? Or suppose Mason’s _whatever_ of the night turned out to be one of the were-creatures they were looking for? Mason could probably handle himself against a regular human being but considering that the pack was having a hard enough time surviving their encounters with them thus far, there was no way that Mason would.

Besides, it would give him an opportunity to give Hayden his first installment. He could give it to her in school but he’d rather not be embarrassed in front of people he had to see every day for the rest of his high-school career. Sinema was a lot safer.

He didn’t tell Mason that he had changed his mind, simply showed up at 10:00pm when he knew that Mason would be there. He even managed to sneak in the back without being noticed, for which he was grateful. He didn’t have any $50s lying around for bribes like Mason did.

It didn’t take him long to find his friend but when he did, he stayed close. Mason didn’t say anything when he suddenly appeared beside him but there was this look in his eyes that spoke volumes, making it hard for Liam to look him in the face.

He’d been there for about a half hour before he finally spotted Hayden. He told Mason he’d be back and took off after her.

Hayden wasn’t too happy to see him at first, looking frustrated and put out as she almost always did, but she surprisingly declined his money. He didn’t know how to interpret that. She needed the money, he knew it, and yet she was saying no.

Confused, he followed her to the back when the breaker gave out, helping her to flip the switch when it became obvious that she wasn’t strong enough. For a second, with his hand on hers and their eyes locked, he could’ve sworn that they shared something. A flicker of interest? A ‘ _moment’_? He didn’t know.

Even more confused now, he thrust the money at her and promised that more was to come as soon as he was able before making his way back to Mason. But, of course, when he got to the spot that he’d left his friend, he was nowhere to be found. Calling him would be pointless because it was impossible to hear a phone ring or even feel a vibration with the volume of the bass in the club.

He circled the club, trying to peer into every nook and cranny that he could but there were way too many people, considerably more than the week before. He’d just made up his mind to check the men’s room when he saw _him_.

Like the week before, he was on an elevated platform, dancing. Unlike the week before, instead of trading off partners, he was sandwiched between two muscled, oily and thong-clad guys in some kind of grind-a-thon. One of the guy’s hands were sliding up the sides of his long torso and a second later, he was as topless as they were, their skin now rubbing against his bare flesh, transferring their shiny slickness.

A strange burn started in Liam’s chest and his hands clenched into fists, nails digging into his palms, a little too pointy to be entirely human. He shouldn’t care, he _didn’t_ , but even though he willed himself to look away, for some reason he couldn’t.

Unbeknownst to him, a low rumble emitted from his throat and the wolf across the room heard it, head snapping up quickly, eyes catching and locking onto Liam’s.

When he realized that Brett was looking right at him, whatever Liam had been feeling was quickly doused and his cheeks flushed with embarrassment. He turned on his feet, heading to the bathroom to resume his search for Mason, _not_ to hide from Brett, but before he could take two steps, an unforgiving hand clamped onto his arm, spinning him around.

“What the fuck was that?” Brett demanded.

Liam ground his teeth, yellow eyes flashing as he immediately responded to the tension building between them the only way he knew how: with aggression.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You know damn well what I mean, Liam. You don’t get to do that.”

“I didn’t do anything!”

“You haven’t returned my calls or responded to my texts. You can’t just come in here and act like you have the right.”

Liam wrenched his arm away. “Dude, I have no idea what you’re talking about but let me make one thing clear: I don’t care. About you, what you do, _who_ you do. None of that means shit to me. Okay? Okay.”

It didn’t occur to him at the time but recalling the moment later on, Liam had never seen Brett look so stunned. It was like he’d been slapped, a blotchy redness leaching into his cheeks, spreading down his neck. He was momentarily speechless.

When he caught himself, Brett reached for him again. “Liam…”

Liam slapped his hand away, eyes narrowing to a glare. “Don’t touch me. Just stay away from me, okay? And stay away from Mason,” he added, before storming off.

He held himself together until he made it to the men’s room but as soon as he was safely behind the closed door, he collapsed against the wall, heart pounding furiously.

What the hell was wrong with him? He hadn’t recognized himself just now. He was never so mean or hateful and he knew, deep down, that Brett had given him no reason to be. It was like…whenever Brett was around, he was a completely different person. Someone he wasn’t sure he liked.

A soft moan drifting out of one of the stalls broke him out of his thoughts and he tilted his head up, taking a deep sniff.

Sighing as he caught his friend’s distinct scent, and another similarly lust-filled one, Liam trudged over and grabbed the top of the stall-door, wrenching it open.

Mason was pressed up against the wall of the stall, a stocky guy with a buzz-cut devouring his face. All clothes seemed to be intact, however, and he counted four hands in his line of sight before they jumped apart at his intrusion.

“Geezus, Liam!” Mason exclaimed, a distinct rosiness filling his cheeks. “Knock, why don’t you?”

“Next time, tell me where you’re going, don’t just disappear,” Liam countered.

“Sorry,” Mason muttered.

“Is this your boyfriend?” the guy asked, eyes swinging from one to the other.

“No,” Mason assured him hastily. “He’s my wingman. My BFF, although I’m seriously having second thoughts about that right now.”

“I’ll just wait over by the door,” Liam said, pointing over his shoulder, already backing up. Now that he thought about it, knocking would have been a better bet than destroying the club’s property. At least he hadn’t torn the door off its hinges, he thought, looking for a silver lining.

He respectfully closed his ears to the low murmurings coming from the stall but he needn’t have worried because soon after, his phone began to ring. He could hear it in here, feel the vibration, the bathroom door shutting out some of the volume and bass from the club’s speakers.

“Scott?” he said upon answering.

“Liam!” Scott’s voice was frantic in his ear. “Where are you?”

“I’m at Sinema.”

“You need to get here, _now_. We’re at Deaton’s.”

“Scott, what’s going on? And Mason’s with me. I can’t…”

“Bring him along. We don’t have any time to waste.”

With that, Scott hung up.

Frowning at his phone, Liam was just about to turn around and call for Mason when Mason came strolling towards him, expression serious.

“What’s going on?”

“We gotta go.”

Without further questioning, Mason nodded and followed Liam quickly through the club and out the back where he’d parked his mom’s car.

It was going on 11:30 and the streets of Beacon Hills were pretty deserted. The intermittent, light drizzle of the past few hours had probably helped keep people indoors, settling in early despite it being Friday. That and the fact that there wasn’t much to do in Beacon Hills at nighttime.

They pulled up at Deaton’s about ten minutes later, clambering out and racing to the door as soon as the car was in park. The door was unlocked so they let themselves in unannounced and headed to the back where they found everyone gathered around a body on the examination table.

“What the hell is that?” Mason breathed.

The body was that of a young man, a teenager about their age Liam supposed. He was probably once attractive but in his current state, his body and face full of slashes and a harpoon sticking out of his chest, it was hard to tell. There were strange flaps of skin behind his ears and as Liam peered closer, he gasped when he realized what they were.

 _Gills_.

His teeth were jagged and pointed, like a piranha, and his nails were long and sharp, a viscous substance dripping from them onto the table.

“Is that poison?” he asked.

“Tetrodotoxin, from what I can tell,” Deaton replied in that matter-of-fact way of his. At Liam’s confused face, he added, “Blowfish poison.”

“What the hell are they doing to these kids?” Mason muttered, the sharp smell of his anger tickling Liam’s nose.

“Too much,” Stiles retorted. “But that’s something to think about some other time. We’ve got a bigger problem.”

Scott’s eyes were grave when they met Liam’s. “There’s another one out there.”

Liam frowned in confusion. “Another one?”

“They were twins,” Lydia explained. “Identical, and from what we saw of him, he’s exactly like his brother.”

“He took off before we could do much damage,” Malia piped in, sounding almost regretful. “We barely managed to subdue this one but before we could bring him in…” She trailed off, the rest going unsaid.

The Dread Doctors had obviously appeared and taken out their _failure_. Innocent kids were losing their lives yet they were nothing more than failed experiments to those psychos.

It frustrated Liam that the pack was doing its best to figure out what was going on and put an end to it yet their efforts so far had amounted to nothing but fatalities and the near-deaths of their own people. They needed a break and soon.

“My mom tracked him to the woods behind the school,” Kira said suddenly, shoving her phone into her pocket. Liam hadn’t even noticed her or heard her speaking. “She said the scent is fresh so chances are he’s still there. He might hide out there for the night.”

“Move out, troops,” Stiles commanded, already starting for the door.

“Guys, wait.” Scott’s expression was sober as he met everyone’s eyes. “Let’s try to bring this one in alive. Please. No more bodies if we can help it.”

“We’re not the ones killing them, Scott,” Kira reminded him gently.

“I know, just…let’s do what we can to save them. It could easily be one of us.”

Pep-talk over and consciences sufficiently guilted, the pack jumped into their respective vehicles and headed to the school where the Sheriff and Deputy Parrish would meet them.

When they got to the school, everyone gathered around.

“Stiles, you stay here with Lydia and Mason. The rest of you, pair up,” Scott suggested.

“Hey!” Lydia and Stiles protested simultaneously.

“Why do we have to stay behind?” Stiles demanded.

“Stiles, now isn’t the time to let your ego take over,” his father chastised.

“We’re having a hard enough time holding them off during fights, Stiles,” Theo spoke up. “I’m sorry to say this but you guys being there is a liability that we can’t afford right now.”

Liam saw Stiles’ jaw clench and he understood what he must feel perfectly. No one liked being made to feel useless. But despite whatever reservations he had about Theo and his true intentions, he couldn’t deny that he had a point. If the Weres were getting their asses kicked going up against these creatures, what chance did a mere human have? Stiles was smart but smarts meant nothing against brute strength. And poison.

“What about me?” Lydia asked hotly, hands on her hips. “I’m supernatural.”

Scott’s tone was gentle when he turned to her. “You’re still recovering from your injury. I know that you want some payback but today isn’t that day.”

Liam glanced over at Mason. He wasn’t surprised that his friend hadn’t opposed Scott’s dictate. Mason had wanted to be part of the inner circle and he was, albeit unofficially, but he knew his limitations. Not only was he human but he was also still new to the world of Weres. He had yet to come up against one personally, barring the wolf incident at the school a few weeks before. He didn’t have the skill or knowledge to survive the man-made monsters they were currently dealing with.

“And Stiles, I know that you don’t want to leave Lydia alone with the new kid on the block,” the Sheriff pointed out. “No offense, Mason,” he added quickly.

“None taken,” Mason chirped with a smile.

Sighing, Stiles fell back. “Fine.”

With three of their ten out, the numbers were uneven so it was decided that everyone would pair up except Scott: Malia and Theo, Liam and Kira, and the Sheriff and Parrish.

Before setting off into the woods, Sheriff Stilinski walked over to his son and pulled a handgun out of his waistband.

“Here,” he said, holding it out to Stiles. “Get in the jeep and do not get out for anything, you hear me? Do not use this unless absolutely necessary. And if you have to, make it count.” His gaze shifted to Lydia. “Make sure he makes it count.”

Lydia nodded solemnly.

Liam strode over to where Mason stood off to the side, slightly separated from the others. There was no anxiety or fear coming off of his friend, only a low hum of excitement. Liam, on the other hand, was a bundle of nerves. They had no idea what they were going to find in the woods and he hated walking into the unknown. The only thing he hated more was leaving his very human, very vulnerable friend behind to fend for himself. For the first time, he found himself regretting that Mason had ever found out about the supernatural. If he were still ignorant, he’d be safe at home or still in Sinema, dancing and having fun without a care in the world.

“Do whatever they say, okay?” he instructed, voice harsher than intended.

Mason, thankfully, took no offense, smiling at his friend with understanding. “Will do. Come back in one piece, yea?”

Liam nodded.

They did their secret handshake for the first time in he couldn’t remember how long and then he turned, trotting over to the tree-line where Kira waited patiently. Mrs. Yukimura was long gone but he could still smell her, just like he could smell the other distinct scent of a non-human creature.

It smelled wrong, though. _Off_.

They headed into the woods as a collective group before breaking off into their respective pairs. Before they separated, he could detect a strange tension between Theo and Malia, could see it in the strained lines of Malia’s face, but he forced his eyes away, focusing on his partner as they set off on their own course. Whatever was going on there was none of his business. He just hoped that Stiles didn’t get hurt. The guy might be an ass of the highest order but he was good, decent, and genuinely cared for his friends, not to mention that he had helped Liam on more than a few occasions – and dragged him into his crazy schemes just as many times.

They followed Mrs. Yukimura’s scent until it faded, trailing only the creature’s from then onward. It was still strong, which told them that he couldn’t be too far away.

Just as the thought crossed Liam’s mind, a loud crash thundered throughout the woods, quickly followed by the sound of wings beating frantically as birds fled the area.

Throwing a quick glance in Kira’s direction, the two took off towards the direction of the crash. Liam didn’t know what awaited them so he tried to brace himself, putting his inner monster on standby in case it was needed. There were times when having I.E.D. was actually beneficial. This might be one of them.

The fight was in full swing by the time they burst through the trees into a small clearing.

He’d barely caught sight of Malia charging towards the creature before she came flying in his direction. He ducked to avoid a collision, wincing when he heard her hit the ground behind him.

Sheriff Stilinski was on the ground as well, Deputy Parrish hovering over him with his gun drawn. There was a gash on his forehead, blood pouring freely from the wound.

Theo and Scott were trying to double-team the boy, coming at him from two sides, but despite the many hits they landed, nothing seemed to weaken him.

Before Liam could dive into the fray, the creature struck out abruptly, grabbing Theo by the neck. His poison-tipped nails sank into Theo’s throat and Theo cried out in agony, thrashing for a moment before going completely still. The creature threw him to the side like yesterday’s garbage, actually smiling sinisterly with his piranha teeth when Theo crashed into a tree before slumping to the ground, still as a corpse.

Growling with rage, Liam bared his claws, fangs dropping and eyes glowing bright yellow as he charged forward, Kira right behind him.

Scott had managed to get the creature into a choke-hold but he was barely hanging on since the creature had sunk its sharp teeth into his arm. Pain radiated from him and spurred Liam’s instinct to defend his alpha.

Amongst the three of them, and after taking many more hits, they barely managed to subdue the boy, Kira’s sword being the final blow that brought him down. She impaled him on the sword, the blade hitting no vital organs but sinking all the way through so that he couldn’t dislodge himself, after which Scott knocked him out with a blow to the head.

Liam looked around, a dull ache in his bloody side where the boy had taken a chomp out of him. Better that than the claws, he reasoned, glancing over at Theo who was just beginning to stir.

Both Malia and the Sheriff were sitting up as well, their injuries apparently not as serious as he’d initially thought.

“Liam,” Scott called, drawing his attention. “Help me get him up. Deaton will meet us at the parking lot in ten minutes but we need to get out of here before the Dread Doctors show up.”

“It still sounds so fricking weird calling them that,” Malia muttered from the tree she was propped up against.

Her comment drew a general chuckle, a promising sound that let them know that they had survived yet another battle.

Liam walked over to Scott, helping him heft the boy up by the shoulders, supporting his weight between the two of them.

They led the way back through the woods, the Sheriff and Deputy Parrish in the middle with Kira and Malia holding up a still-dazed Theo bringing up the rear.

They were silent all the way to the parking lot, everyone’s ears tuned in for any sound or unusual disturbance.

Thankfully, they made it back without incident.

As soon as they breached the trees, Stiles and Mason came running at them, Stiles heading immediately for his father while Mason took Theo’s weight from Malia who was clearly still weakened by the injuries she’d received.

Deaton pulled up shortly after and they all packed into their respective vehicles, Liam and Scott going in the van with Deaton in the event that the boy awoke, despite the fact that Deaton had shot him up with enough tranquilizers to put a horse out for days the minute he arrived.

Their return to the clinic was blessedly uneventful and once Deaton had the boy in the back, strapped securely to the examination table and still unconscious, Liam finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Maybe they had finally caught the break they’d been waiting for.

He trudged out of the examination room behind Scott and the others when Deaton and the Sheriff began considering the practical versus moral and legal implications of de-clawing the boy. If he shifted back to his human shape then it wouldn’t be a problem but there was no telling whether they would be able to reason with him and his claws were far more dangerous than his teeth, being poisonous and all. Theo was still shaking off the effects of the poison and he was a strong, young wolf. A human would have died within minutes of being infected.

“We survived,” Kira murmured, dropping onto a sofa in the clinic’s waiting room.

“Score one for us,” Stiles quipped sarcastically. There was a haunted look in his eyes, a restlessness about his body as he paced the small room, and Liam knew that it had nothing to do with his friends’ near defeat and everything to do with how close his father had come to dying. It was his greatest fear, after all. Everyone knew it. The Sheriff was all that Stiles had left.

“We won this battle,” Scott acknowledged with a small smile. “Hopefully it signals a change in the tide.”

A low murmuring of agreement rippled throughout the room.

“Has anyone heard from Brett?” Scott asked suddenly.

Despite himself, Liam’s heart skipped a beat and he immediately straightened.

“Brett?” Mason repeated, a confused look on his face as he glanced over at Liam.

“Yeah. With Peter locked up, Derek off finding himself and Mr. Argent basically indentured to the Calaveras, we’re a bit short-handed. I asked for his help on this and he told me that he’d try to get a couple others from his pack to lend a hand.”

“But…he was at Sinema when we were there,” Liam said, not quite able to wrap his head around it.

“I called him right after I hung up with you,” Scott explained. “I told him to go there directly instead of coming here, hoping that between both groups we might have the kid surrounded. He said that he’d head up to the border where the woods meet the Preserve, just in case he made it that far. But…I texted him on the way back here and he hasn’t replied.”

“Try calling,” Kira suggested, a tightness in her voice.

Scott did as she suggested, shaking his head when he got no answer. All of the Weres heard when it went to Brett’s obnoxious voicemail greeting.

“Maybe he dropped his phone,” Malia suggested. “It’s not hard when you’re traipsing around the woods in the middle of the night.”

“Maybe,” Lydia said quietly.

There was an unspoken agreement, however, an understanding borne purely from experience that there were other more tragically likely possibilities.

Before Liam even realized that he’d moved, he was pushing the door open, running out into the brisk night air.

The rain was drizzling again but it didn’t slow him down, if anything it gave him the drive to pump his legs faster, digging deeper into the pitch as he took longer strides.

He heard his name being called, Scott and Mason’s voices blending into one urgent cry, but he ignored it.

All he could think was that Brett was lying somewhere, injured and bleeding, in the woods.

 _I don’t care_.

Shit! If Brett died, those will have been his last words to him.

It was such a fucking lie, though. He’d known that even as he’d said it. He _did_ care. He still didn’t know why but he did. It was easier to continue pretending to hate Brett than it was to try to figure out why he no longer did. There was so much going on lately that his changing feelings towards his frenemy simply didn’t seem important in the grand scheme of things. Or so he told himself. Mason would say that he was avoiding acknowledging the truth; that he already knew what the truth was. Mason was usually right.

He hit the woods at a record pace, heart thundering in his chest. He felt absolutely in control, his anger for once at bay, too overwhelmed by fear he supposed. The others would follow, he was sure. They would eventually catch up to him but _he_ had to be the one to find Brett. He needed it.

There were too many scents in the woods, theirs mixed with the boy they’d caught and a few others he couldn’t identify. The rain wasn’t helping either, dimming the strength of the scents the longer it fell. None of them were Brett’s, though. Liam still had a ways to go to get to the Preserve but it was obvious that Brett hadn’t passed this way to get there.

As he neared the line, he threw common sense to the wind and gave into his fear.

“Brett!” he called at the top of his lungs. “Brett! Where are you?”

He skidded to a halt on the damp leaves, listening for any sound, any rustling of leaves or trees. There was nothing.

He got his ass back into gear, charging through the overgrown brush, dodging branches and fallen trees, not caring when leaves tore at his cheeks. He barely felt it with the amount of adrenaline flowing through his veins.

He was almost at the line, crossing a small clearing as he approached the denseness of the Preserve, Brett’s name once more spilling from his lips when a soft laugh caught his ears, drawing him to an abrupt stop.

“Geezus, Liam, you’re going to wake the dead if you keep hollering like that.”

Turning on his heel, he peered in the direction that the voice had come from, using his wolf-eyes to see better in the darkness when his human eyes failed. There, leaning casually as ever against a tree stump, was Brett.

For a second, Liam’s innate anger returned and fire was about to spew forth from his tongue. How dare Brett be so chill about this when Liam had been terrified on his behalf?

Then he smelled the blood. From the thickness of the smell, there was a lot of it.

Ire quickly dashed, Liam raced over, dropping to his knees beside him.

“I thought Lydia was the only banshee in your pack,” Brett joked.

“Shut up!” Liam snapped. “Where are you hurt? How bad is it?”

From his spot against the tree, Brett was protected from the rain by the intercrossing thicket of branches over his head. He was clutching his stomach, though, and Liam could see that his entire torso was soaked with blood.

“How are you still alive?” Liam whispered, a heavy feeling settling in the pit of his stomach as he gently moved Brett’s arm away so that he could see the damage for himself.

“I don’t think it’s as bad as it looks,” Brett assured him, still managing to smile. His words were belied by the sudden coughing fit that racked him…and the blood seeping out the corners of his lips.

“Oh, God,” Liam breathed. Brett was dying before his very eyes and there was nothing he could do. “Where are your people? Scott said you were going to bring others with you.”

Brett laid a bloody hand over Liam’s. “Don’t blame them. My pack…we aren’t like you guys. Sure, we’re wolves and aggression is in our nature but it’s different for us. We’ve worked hard not to be violent so when it comes time to tap into that aggression, it’s hard for some.”

Taking a deep inhale, Liam caught the scent of two others…and the fear.

“They abandoned you,” he spat, disgust dripping from his words like venom.

“It was a father and his daughter,” Brett explained. “They were the only ones willing to come with me. Everything was fine, quiet. I got Scott’s text and we were getting ready to head back home when that… _thing_ appeared.”

Liam’s breath caught in his throat. “What did it look like?”

“Human but…not. He had spikes everywhere. One minute he was normal, like you and me, the next he had quills sticking out of every inch of his skin. I told them to leave, that I’d cover them. They only have each other. I couldn’t let them risk their lives because of me.”

As Brett spoke, Liam worked at staunching the bleeding. He shed his jacket and tore his shirt off, using his nails to rip it into strips that he tied around Brett’s middle. There was so much blood. The scent clogged his nostrils, making him nauseous. The wolf side of him wanted to leave. It smelled death and wanted to be nowhere near the boy when it happened. Even now, Liam could hear his heartbeat slowing down.

The others were on their way, though. He could hear them off in the distance.

“It was fine when he was in human form,” Brett continued, eyes gazing off into the darkness. “I was holding my own. But he seemed to realize that he couldn’t beat me that easily. That’s when the quills came out.”

“Quills?” Liam repeated in disbelief, the word finally registering.

Mustering what little strength he had, Brett reached beside him and picked up a handful of long, thin, blood-streaked needles. “Like a porcupine.”

“Oh, my God.”

“I know. These Doctor dudes are some sick bastards. They’re projectiles too. And look at the tips.”

Liam inspected them closely, seeing a purplish coating on each one. “Poison?” he asked.

“Look closer.”

So he did, bringing the needles to his nose and taking a whiff. When he identified the smell, his eyes flew sharply to Brett’s.

“Wolfsbane.”

“I never stood a chance,” Brett sighed, a grim acceptance in his voice.

Dropping the needles onto the ground, Liam took Brett’s hand in his. “You’ll be fine. You’re tough. You’ll get through this.”

When Brett’s eyes met his this time, they were clear. Speculative. “I thought you didn’t care.”

Heat tinged Liam’s cheeks and he took a deep breath, swallowing thickly. “I lied.”

A smile twitched at the corner of Brett’s bloody lips. “I know. You’re not very good at it.”

“Shut up,” Liam groaned.

When Brett burst into another coughing fit, Liam was immediately chastised, guilt deepening the colour in his cheeks.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it.”

Brett couldn’t seem to stop coughing, though. More blood came out, trailing down his chin and Liam’s eyes widened with horror.

 _No_ , his mind screamed. _No, no, no!_

“Hold on,” he pleaded, wrapping his arm around Brett’s shivering frame. “Please. Just hold on.”

_“Liam!”_

_“Liam, where are you?”_

“Brett? Brett, they’re here. Brett? _Brett!_ ”

As Brett’s body went completely limp in his arms, Liam went into full panic mode.

He shook him, screaming his name, which had his friends charging into the clearing expecting the worst.

And when that didn’t work, when Brett’s eyelashes didn’t so much as flicker, he threw his head back, agonized yellow eyes raised to the moon and howled.


	2. Chapter 2

Liam watched his fingers as they idly traced the pattern of the green vines on his bedspread.

He could hear Mason’s laughter from downstairs, his mother’s higher-pitched one following shortly after.

They were in the kitchen whipping something up: a shared hobby that they liked to indulge in from time to time.

He appreciated that Mason was keeping her occupied, giving him time to get himself together before facing her and his dad. There’d be questions, he was sure; especially considering the state he’d been in when they brought him home.

 

_When Scott and the others arrived, they found Liam howling like a wild animal, clutching Brett’s lifeless body in his arms._

_Scott talked to him gently, approaching with caution while he convinced him to let them take Brett back to Deaton’s for treatment._

_“Listen, Liam,” Scott said soothingly. “Just listen. His heart’s still beating. It’s soft but it’s there. We can save him. It’s not too late but we need to hurry.”_

_He did as Scott suggested, listening intently, and sure enough, he heard it: the faint thump of Brett’s heart. It was weak, so frighteningly weak, but it was still there, ticking away._

_He started to stand, struggling with Brett’s dead-weight. He was so much bigger than Liam, the difference between their sizes never more apparent than in that moment._

_Scott and Theo rushed over, immediately lending a hand and between the two of them, they managed to get a hold of Brett’s upper and lower body, Liam sticking close in case they needed extra hands._

_Before they could move out of the clearing, though, they heard someone crashing through the woods, heading in their direction._

_Liam immediately dropped into a crouch, eyes glowing and fangs and teeth unsheathed, ready to defend Brett to the death._

_Three bodies plunged out of the darkness, coming to an abrupt stop when they saw their welcome wagon._

_There was one woman and two men. Even though he’d never met her, Liam immediately recognized her._

Satomi _._

_He could smell Brett on her, the familiarity between them; the strong smell of her anxiety and fear replacing the scent of Brett’s blood._

_“Satomi.” The surprise in Scott’s voice was unmistakable._

_“Scott,” she greeted with a small nod. “We’ll take it from here.”_

_“What?” Liam exclaimed, unconsciously taking a step towards her. “We’re taking him back to Deaton’s. He’s dying. He needs help.”_

_Satomi’s gaze swung to Liam’s agonized face. “He will get it. His people will take care of him.”_

_“No!” Liam yelled, taking another step closer. “Can’t you see? He needs a professional.”_

_“Liam,” Scott murmured, placing a warning hand on his arm._

_Liam looked over his shoulder at Scott, only just realizing that he was no longer holding Brett._

_The two men that Satomi had brought with her were huge, as if she’d known she would need them to tote a body._

_One of them, a seven foot hulk of a man, had thrown Brett over his shoulder, Brett’s arms dangling limply down his back._

_“No,” Liam croaked, his voice desperate. He didn’t realize that there were tears streaming down his face, comingling with the rain._

_“You did well, little wolf,” Satomi said, her voice surprisingly gentle though her expression remained impassive. “Now his family, and Buddha, will take care of the rest.”_

_With a short nod to Scott, she stepped back into the darkness from whence she came, the two men disappearing behind her._

_Scott held onto Liam until they could no longer hear them._

_And as soon as Scott released him, Liam flipped._

 

Liam went still, his eyes drifting shut as shame coursed through him.

This part of the memory was a hard pill to swallow.

He’d never known fear like that since the day Garrett had poisoned him and dropped him down a well, leaving him to die. And he hadn’t lost control like that since the day he’d beaten the shit out of his coach’s car.

It didn’t matter, though. As far as he was concerned, his actions were inexcusable.

In his rage, he’d attacked Scott, seeing no friends among the group, only enemies trying to keep him from Brett.

Scott had done his best to hold him off without hurting him, even taking a swipe or two from Liam’s claws.

Then he’d done the unthinkable.

He’d heard Mason say Brett’s name, not even the rest of the sentence, just his name, and had lunged at him. Some kind of switch had been flipped: a crazed, territorial beast inside of him taking offense that Mason had _dared_ speak his name.

The last thing he remembered before his world went black was Mason’s shocked, horrified face and pain blooming in the back of his skull.

He’d woken up in his bed, dressed in his pajamas, with Mason nibbling on toast beside him.

He’d been clear-headed, not a moment of doubt or confusion regarding the previous night’s events, and he’d looked at his friend for a minute, embarrassed and ashamed at his behavior, wondering how he could possibly apologize for what he’d done.

Before he’d found the words, however, Mason had looked over at him and whatever he’d seen on his face had drawn a smile.

“ _Don’t sweat it, man_ ,” he’d said. “ _We all have bad days_.”

He’d climbed out of bed and left the room, returning a few minutes later with Liam’s breakfast.

Liam didn’t say a word while they ate but he listened closely as Mason chatted amiably.

He told him that he and Scott had brought him home and they’d had to wake his parents up to get him in the house since there was no way to sneak in without making a ruckus as he’d been unconscious. They’d thought about telling them that he’d been a victim of a bottle to the head during a fight at the club but figured his dad, being a doctor and all, would want to take him to the hospital to check for a concussion and even if he hadn’t, how would they explain the fact that the bleeding cut at the back of his head had disappeared by morning?

Instead, they’d hid the head injury, knowing that it would heal, and told his parents that he’d had a little bit of alcohol that hadn’t agreed with him and he’d passed out in the car.

His parents had sighed and muttered about teenagers and drinking but ultimately allowed his friends to get him settled in bed without making a fuss. When Mason had said that he’d sleep over since he didn’t want to wake his own parents, they’d been fine with that too.

All in all, Liam knew it could have been much worse.

“Liam?” his mother called from downstairs. “Scott’s here.”

Sighing, Liam opened his eyes and rolled onto his back.

“He’s in his room,” he heard his mother say conspiratorially. “Hasn’t left his bed all morning. I hope that means he’s learned his lesson.”

Scott laughed softly and then Liam could hear his footsteps on the stairs, tracking them as he made his way down the hall to Liam’s room.

“Hey,” Scott greeted, poking his head into the room before the rest of his body followed. “How are you feeling?”

“Okay,” he replied, sitting up. His voice was still rough, like someone had rubbed his throat raw with sandpaper.

Scott sat at the foot of his bed, eyes directed to his clasped hands. “I’m sorry I hit you. I didn’t intend to hit you so hard.”

“I deserved it,” Liam said tonelessly.

Scott glanced over at him, a slight frown settling between his brows.

They were quiet for a long time, tension hanging heavily between them.

Eventually, it was Scott who broke the silence.

“So…” he began, picking nervously at Liam’s bedspread. “You and Brett, huh? I didn’t know. Had no clue, to be honest.”

“There’s nothing _to_ know.”

Scott’s frown returned. “Liam…”

“I overreacted. I had no right, no reason, to lash out the way I did. I could’ve hurt you. I could’ve hurt Mason.” Guilt burned in his throat, unshed tears threatening to fall.

“You care about him,” Scott said gently. “No one blames you.”

“I don’t…”

“Liam. No one reacts like that unless there are feelings involved. _Strong_ feelings.”

He didn’t know what to say to that. He couldn’t deny it because his actions had already proven more than words ever could.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” he whispered.

“Hey.” Scott laid a gentle hand on his leg. “There’s nothing wrong with you. The heart is a funny thing. It often does what it wants.” He paused. “You’d be surprised the complications it’s gotten me into.”

“Like what?”

Scott’s cheeks flamed deep red. “Before Isaac left, before Allison died, things took a…strange turn. Well, not strange. _Unexpected_.” He nodded, a small smile settling on his lips. “Yeah, unexpected.”

Liam drew his legs up and wrapped his arms around them, resting his cheek on his knees as he watched Scott curiously.

“Isaac was living with me and we were close. Kinda like Stiles and I are but…different. It’s always felt different. We _said_ we were bros but it never quite felt like that. Not _just_ that, anyway. One day, we decided to stop pretending that it wasn’t what it was.”

“What was it?” Liam asked softly.

“An attraction. I can’t really say when it began. I guess by the time he moved in, it was just…there. I could see it in the way he looked at me sometimes and I felt something echoing inside of me. I knew that he would never do anything about it, though, so I told myself that I was safe.”

“Safe from what?”

“Exactly! Eventually, I had to ask myself that very question. Isaac would never hurt me and there was no actual danger involved. So one day… _I_ did something about it.”

Liam gasped, lifting his head as he looked at Scott with wide eyes.

“Then what happened?”

“Well…There were other things going on that couldn’t be ignored. The fact of the matter is that I was still in love with Allison and Isaac was too. On top of that, she still loved me but I knew that she was developing feelings for him as well. It might sound like the perfect recipe for some threesome-type situation but it wasn’t. We’re young and with all the supernatural stuff going on as well as school, we didn’t need those extra complications. Besides, I could never share her with anyone. I loved her too much. I’d promised to give her time, to wait for her, and I cared about Isaac and wanted him to be happy. We never really talked about what had happened between us; never talked about what was brewing between them. I kind of just stayed out of it and gave my silent approval. I always believed deep in my soul that she and I would get back together one day.”

“Then she died…” Liam whispered.

Scott nodded. “Then she died.”

Silence fell between them again but it wasn’t an uncomfortable one.

Liam regretted that he hadn’t had the opportunity to meet the love of his alpha’s life. From what everyone said about her, Allison sounded like an amazing person.

“But you have Kira now,” he said, forcing brightness into his voice to alleviate the gloom.

Scott grinned. “I do. It’s different than it was with Allison but…I love her. I really do.”

Liam smiled slightly. He could hear the adoration in Scott’s voice and secretly wondered what it must feel like to have those feelings for someone, or to have someone return them.

“I don’t know what’s going on between you and Brett, Liam…”

Liam opened his mouth, a denial swift on his tongue, but Scott’s raised hand stopped him.

“Wait. Hear me out. Whatever it is, be it friendship or something more, I just want you to know that I support you. I want you to be happy. And stop beating yourself up over things you can’t control. Focus on the things that you _can_.”

Embarrassed heated Liam’s face but he nodded.

“Well, I better get going,” Scott stated, standing. “Deaton wants me to come over so we can discuss what we’re going to do with our captive when he wakes up.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll talk to you later. And call if you need anything.”

Liam nodded again.

Just as Scott was walking out the door, Liam called his name.

There was one thing, tried as he might to pretend otherwise, that he needed to know.

“Have you heard…” He cleared his throat, ignoring the flush he felt spreading cross his cheeks. “Have there been any updates?”

Scott’s brown eyes turned sympathetic. “No. I put in a call to Satomi first thing this morning but haven’t heard back from her.”

Liam’s gaze fell. “I see.”

“He’s strong, though. I’m sure he’ll be fine,” Scott said, inflecting optimism and positivity into his words for Liam’s sake.

Liam appreciated it, even if it was hard to believe. He’d seen the state Brett was in when they’d taken him away. He’d felt his blood pumping through his fingers. Werewolf or not, his chances were slim.

After Scott left, he stayed in his room a while longer, just thinking. He was spending far more time in his head lately than he liked; more than was probably advisable given his condition.

Eventually, his mother announced that lunch was ready, adding that neither she nor Mason would be serving him in bed so he’d better get his butt downstairs.

Sighing, but feeling marginally better than he had upon waking, he decided that it was probably time to face the music.

As he slid off the bed and started down the hall to the staircase, an errant thought that he should’ve had a shower before rejoining civilized company flitted through his mind, further reinforced when he finally caught a whiff of himself.

_Oh well…_

 

 

­­­­When Monday rolled around, Liam felt more like himself.

He’d survived his parents’ lecture on the dangers of teen drinking, escaping with a warning instead of punishment, and there hadn’t been any more chimera attacks or sightings – that he knew of anyway – during the weekend. Scott had called to check up on him several times and had updated him on the situation with the chimera in their possession. Deaton, Sheriff Stilinski and Scott had ultimately decided that de-clawing the kid was in everyone’s best interest since they couldn’t get him to calm down long enough to shift back and _stay_ that way. Leaving him with those poisonous claws was a risk they simply couldn’t take. Liam could hear the upset in Scott’s voice when he’d spoken about it. Scott was very compassionate and he knew that on top of recovering the kids alive, Scott would also prefer to keep them perfectly intact but that was a luxury he’d have to accept they might not always have.

As soon as Liam got to school, he made a bee-line for Scott’s locker, finding him there talking to Kira, the two looking stupidly in love as usual, all heart-eyes and dimpled smiles.

He couldn’t help thinking how cute it was and that, despite everything they dealt with on a daily basis, they still managed to keep their love going.

 _God_ , he was turning into a cornball.

“Any news?” he asked as he came to a stop beside them, forgoing a polite greeting and getting straight to the point.

“Liam, hey.” He didn’t miss the way Scott’s face immediately fell at his question…or the look he exchanged with Kira.

“What?” He didn’t mean for his tone to sound so sharp but sensing bad news, his hackles were automatically raised.

“Nothing. I spoke to Satomi this morning. Brett…he’s going to be okay,” Scott assured him quickly, adopting that soothing voice he used on injured animals and small children. It only incensed Liam more. “His injures were a lot more serious than we thought, though. One of the quills had pierced his lung; another nicked his heart so the wolfsbane was injected directly. It was touch and go there for a bit from what Satomi said but…it seems like he’s going to make a full recovery.”

It took Liam a second to fully understand what Scott had said but when the words finally sank in, he breathed a sigh of relief, the tension easing from his body.

“That’s great. That’s…” Realizing that the couple was giving him intensely speculative looks, Liam clammed up, unable to suppress the colour flooding his cheeks. They could think whatever they wanted, he didn’t care. He was just happy that Brett had made it. “Can we visit him?”

 _We or_ I, a little voice teased.

“Liam…” Scott glanced at Kira again before continuing, his voice gentling. “Brett…He hasn’t woken up since they took him home.”

The blood drained from Liam’s face. “What?”

“He’s unconscious. With the damage to his heart and lung…Satomi says it might be his body’s way of protecting itself. He only started healing yesterday but it’s not nearly as fast as it should be, probably because of the wolfsbane.”

“When…” Liam cleared his throat when his voice cracked. “When does she think he’ll wake up?”

Scott shrugged. “It could be anytime: today, tomorrow, or maybe not until he’s fully healed. No one can say.”

Liam digested Scott’s words, swallowing back the emotions that threatened to choke him. Whatever levity he’d been feeling when he arrived at school was completely gone now.

“So can we see him?” he asked again.

“Satomi said she’ll let us know if there’s any news,” Scott replied in lieu of an answer.

The ringing of the first-period bell just then grated on Liam’s already raw nerves.

“We’d better get to class,” Scott said, taking Kira’s hand. He shot Liam a worried glance. “I’ll see you later?”

Liam nodded wordlessly, not watching as Scott walked away.

He shouldn’t be surprised but somehow he was still flustered by Scott’s news.

If being unconscious would help Brett heal faster then it was a good thing that he was, wasn’t it?

He was sure that Satomi and the rest of Brett’s pack had done everything they could to save him. He just had to wait.

Liam _needed_ to see him, though. He didn’t know why but there was this crushing pain in his chest at the thought of Brett just lying there, dead to the world. He could still feel the weight of his lifeless body in his arms; could still feel the slipperiness of his blood as it poured through his fingers, the smell of imminent death thick in his nose. Simply hearing that Brett was going to be fine didn't cut it.

He needed to _see_ it for himself.

 

 

Scott was probably going to kill him but he didn’t care.

 _What needs must_ , and all that.

As soon as the bell rang signaling the end of last period, Liam was off. He shot out of school like a lightning bolt, racing down the street until he got to the correct bus-stop.

After Brett’s pack had been decimated during the deadpool drama, they’d essentially become homeless. He knew that Mr. Argent had helped them relocate, providing them with a building that they could use. Satomi had money, he was sure – probably a lot of it since all werewolves seemed to be loaded from what he’d noticed, especially older ones or those who came from esteemed, multi-generational families like the Hales – but the situation had been dire and immediate assistance necessary. It had been months since but apparently, or according to Mason anyway, they’d settled in nicely and had decided to stay there.

Liam had never been to the place and hadn’t the vaguest idea where it was. He could track them through the woods, he was sure, since their scents wouldn’t have faded completely but that route could be dangerous and it was definitely time-consuming so he’d _casually_ asked and gotten general directions from Mason, which hadn’t been easy without stirring Mason’s suspicions. His friend hadn’t asked any questions, though, so either Liam had gotten away with it or Mason was waiting to pounce on him at a later date. He’d cross that bridge when he came to it.

The bus ride was a relatively short one: twenty minutes max.

When he got off the bus, he had to look around for a minute to catch his bearings. Mason had driven in the middle of the night so Liam only had an approximation of where he was supposed to go from the main street, which was where he currently was. The building was on one of the more isolated streets branching off the main, closer to the woods.

Accepting that he was a bit lost, Liam began to walk in what he hoped was the right direction, figuring that he would catch a werewolf’s scent eventually to help him one way or the other. He knew that Satomi had taught her pack how to hide their scent but he doubted that they _all_ did it every second of every day, especially the younger members. There must be a lingering trace _somewhere_.

As he walked, it finally occurred to Liam that he hadn’t given a thought about what he would say when he got to his destination. Or to whom.

If Brett was still unconscious, which by all accounts he was, then he’d be dealing with random pack members or Satomi herself. What was the proper etiquette for showing up unannounced and uninvited to another alpha’s home? Or was it den?

 _I really didn’t think this through_ , he thought with a sigh.

After a few minutes of walking, he finally caught a break, catching a faint, wolfy scent just as he was about to turn and head back the way he’d come. He followed it to a building further down from where he’d stopped.

It seemed that Mason’s cockamamie directions had been good after all.

He looked up at the building with a frown. It didn’t look like someone lived there. It had your typical office-building exterior: drab, unassuming and not a hint of what kind of “business” lay within. No one would ever guess that it housed a pack of deadly, supernatural creatures, though he supposed that that was exactly the point.

That a werewolf had been there recently didn’t mean that it was in fact the right place, he acknowledged to himself. But there was only one way to find out.

Taking a deep, bracing breath, he threw his shoulders back and walked into the foyer.

He didn’t know what he was expecting but he certainly wasn’t expecting it to look like a real, working business. There was the requisite elevator bank and stairs; a few elegantly appointed potted plants. There was even a receptionist: a kind-looking older woman of about fifty, if he had to guess. She was pretty, smooth-skinned and only slightly grayed at the temples. He couldn’t catch her scent so he had no idea if she was human or wolf but he knew that that didn’t mean anything considering the pack he was dealing with.

The woman looked up as he entered, a smile immediately coming to her lips. “Good afternoon,” she greeted warmly.

Butterflies dancing frantically in his stomach, Liam approached her desk.

“Hi. Uh…good afternoon.”

_Smooth, Liam. Real smooth._

After a few seconds of awkward silence and eyebrows raised in expectation on the woman’s face, Liam cleared his throat.

“Um…I’m here to see Brett,” he said, striving for casual.

Something flickered in the woman’s eyes but it was fleeting and long gone before he had a chance to figure out what it was.

She looked at him for what felt like an eternity before finally saying, “A moment please.”

She picked up the phone on her desk and dialed one digit, an extension he assumed.

“Yeah, it’s me,” she spoke into the phone. “We have a visitor.”

After that announcement, she replaced the phone in the cradle and said, “Someone will be with you shortly.”

Her expression wasn’t so kind anymore, her eyes turning calculating and just a bit wary. He was pretty sure that he was in the right place at this point but he most definitely did not feel welcome.

Barely a minute passed before an elevator dinged, the doors opened…and Satomi walked out.

Oh, geezus. He didn’t know if he could do this.

“Satomi.” He did not hear the nervous squeak in his voice just now, no he did _not_. “Um….hello. I’m…”

“Liam,” she finished for him, coming to a halt a couple feet away. “I know who you are, little wolf.”

Heat flamed in Liam’s cheeks. He really wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.

“What are you doing here?” she asked. She still had that impassive, hard-to-read expression that he remembered from the other night. The straightforward, uninflected tones of her voice gave nothing away either.

 _Oh God._ “Scott told me about Brett. Um...I was hoping that you would let me see him.” He gave himself a mental pat on the back for completing two whole sentences without completely embarrassing himself.

“Might I ask why?”

He blinked. “What?”

“Why do you want to see him?”

He had not been expecting that. He was once again reminded of how unprepared he’d been for this visit. Did he really think he could just walk in there, ask to see Brett and have it be that easy? He wasn’t pack and he wasn’t Scott. They owed him nothing.

“I…I just thought that…maybe if someone visited him, a friend, and maybe talked to him, if he heard their voice, my voice…maybe it would help.” That was a lot of maybes but it was as good an explanation as he could come up with spur of the moment. Hell, it worked in the movies!

“A friend,” Satomi repeated. For some reason, the way she said it made the word sound a lot more loaded than it should have been. At the merest hint of judgment, Liam’s defenses began to rise against his will.

Rather than question him further, Satomi continued, saying, “That’s very thoughtful of you, Liam, but I’m afraid that Brett can’t have visitors at the moment.”

“But…”

“I’m sorry. I’ll let him know you stopped by.”

And with that, she turned and started back towards the elevator.

Liam was stunned. He hadn’t really considered the possibility of being turned down. He needed to see Brett, that was all there was to it.

He could feel his anger flaring, borne out of helplessness, and curled his fingers into fists when his nails suddenly got longer and sharper.

He cast a glance over at the “receptionist”. Long gone was the friendly welcome. There was a grim set to her lips and her eyes were intent, prepared even. If he made the wrong move, or _any_ move for all he knew, she was going to take him down.

 _Definitely a wolf_.

Frustrated, but knowing when he was defeated, Liam turned and made his way to the front doors, not caring that his feet pounded on the hard tile or that there was a bit more force in his grip when he threw the doors open.

Why couldn’t they _see_?, he wondered as he stomped down the sidewalk in the direction of the bus stop. He just wanted to make sure that Brett was okay. Why was that so hard to understand?

Realistically, he knew that it had nothing to do with him per se – or he hoped not at least – and everything to do with closing ranks and protecting their own, especially since Brett was in no condition to protect himself.

But Liam didn’t want to hurt him. He would never. Okay, maybe a few months ago he might have but now… He hadn’t really thought about it but ever since the day Brett had helped him out on the field during the lacrosse match, he’d stopped seeing him as the enemy. He might not be ready to say it out loud but whatever animosity he’d once felt towards Brett was long gone. It had only taken recent events for him to realize it.

When he arrived at the bus-stop, he settled in for a little wait. He could walk back home, take a shortcut through the woods, but he didn’t want to risk running into anyone…or _anything_. Sure, a fight would be a great way to blow off some steam but he wasn’t so rage-filled that common sense had gone out the window completely and he knew that his chances of surviving a one-on-one encounter with a chimera were slim. He couldn’t just think about himself, anymore. He had to think about the pack. As Scott’s sole beta, he had a responsibility to ensure his own safety, even if only to give Scott one less thing to worry about.

Sighing, he sat on the bench, looking down at his hands. There were smears of blood on his palms but the skin had already healed. He hated how easily he lost control but at least he hadn’t completely lost his shit when he hadn’t gotten his way. Progress.

He would just have to wait, he supposed. Brett would wake up. He _had_ to.

 

 

That Thursday was the full moon and Liam _knew_ – he could feel it in his bones – that it was going to be bad.

He hated when the full moon fell on a week day. It resulted in him going to school exhausted and short-tempered for however many days remained in the week. The fact that there was only Friday left was a very small blessing.

He was getting a handle on his reaction to the moon, slowly but surely, but since he knew that this was probably going to be his worst in a while, he willingly went with Scott and Stiles into the woods that evening, even going so far as to instruct them to take him deep inside and bring extra chains. They’d looked at him in surprise, wariness setting in soon after when the implications probably hit them, but they hadn’t asked for an explanation and he wouldn’t have given one even if they had.

He was still himself, in control, when they chained him to the tree but as the moon rose, little by little, he could feel it slipping away. Usually he fought to hold onto it, to stay as human as possible, even if it meant that he ended up with raw, shredded palms for as long as the shift lasted. This time, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to do it and truthfully, he didn’t want to.

By the time the moon peaked, he was pulling at his chains, eyes bright yellow beams in his skull, fangs gnashing, tearing up his own lips. Usually when it got this bad, he roared with furious abandon, the wolf inside outraged at being held captive. This time, however, he howled and even to his own ears it sounded sad, mournful. Despite the haziness of his thoughts, his emotions and instincts pulling him in a million different directions, he could see Scott and Stiles watching him silently, their expressions serious and contemplative. He could only imagine what they were thinking. In the moment, however, he didn’t really care. He couldn’t find it within him to feel ashamed.

It went on for hours and by the end, he was completely drained: a wet, sagging lump tethered to the tree trunk. Scott and Stiles supported him as they walked back to the school where Stiles had left his jeep. They drove him home, neither one saying a word during the short car-ride, and somehow he found the strength to drag himself into the house, up the stairs and down the hall to his room before passing out on his bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is actually half of one long-ass chapter that I decided it was okay to split since the tone changes in the second half. The rest should be up in a couple of days.


	3. Chapter 3

The next day, Liam was in no mood for anyone’s company.

He’d honestly considered staying home. He rarely missed school, especially now that he could no longer get sick, so his mom would probably be okay with it but somehow he was able to convince himself that going was the best thing for him.

He regretted it the minute he walked into the school.

The incessant chatter; the bright, cheeriness on everyone’s faces as they looked forward to the weekend: it was all too much. He hadn’t felt this irritable in ages.

He kept his head down and went straight to class, avoiding anyone who could possibly have a word to say to him. Mason tried to engage him in conversation during their only morning class together but soon gave up after getting little to no response to his attempts.

He managed to make it through the first half of the day without talking to a single soul and it was a blessed sort of silence. He really just wanted to live in his head for a while.

Lunch time proved more challenging, however.

The problem with high-school was that everyone had their allotted place. Even the people who didn’t belong to any particular social group had their usual spot. His spot was with Mason and their other friends but he really didn’t want to talk to anyone. If there was an empty broom-closet somewhere that he could hide in then he would have made use of it. Unfortunately, he couldn’t think of any so he sucked it up and sat at his usual table.

Perhaps sensing his foul mood, everyone pretty much ignored him, for which he was grateful. Everyone except Mason, _of course_.

“So…” his friend began tentatively. “How did last night go?”

“It went,” he replied shortly, before taking a bite of his sandwich.

“Okay…” Mason took a moment – Liam heard his heart beat twice – before continuing. “Any plans for later? Or this weekend? You up for some Sinema?”

Liam’s head snapped sideways, eyes boring into Mason’s. Did he really just ask that? After what had happened the last, the _only_ , two times he’d been there?

“I’ll take that as a no.” Mason munched on a fry before releasing a loud sigh. “Look, dude, I can’t help you unless you talk to me. I know that things are a little…weird right now but I’m here for you. Don’t shut me out again.”

_Again_.

Liam knew that Mason could only be referring to the way he’d alienated himself after being bitten, back when he’d been dealing with his phobia of Berserkers. He’d felt bad for being a shitty friend at the time and here he was doing it again.

“Sorry,” he finally said.

“It’s okay,” Mason replied with a small smile, like he always did.

It wasn’t, though.

“No, it’s not. Just…give me some time, okay?”

Mason gave him a long, considering look before nodding.

 

 

He made it through the rest of the day and was out of school as soon as the bell rang.

When he got home, he switched his phone off and flopped onto his bed.

He felt guilty about abandoning the pack, especially right after mentally committing himself to doing his fair share in the current war against the Dread Doctors and their atrocities and simply being a good Beta. He really didn’t want to disappoint Scott but Scott was all about saving lives and Liam was _this_ close to killing something. Scott really didn’t need him around complicating things. Besides, he had already proven through his interaction with Mason that he was currently unfit for human consumption. He was better off being by himself.

The rest of the weekend crawled by in a blur of homework, napping and online gaming with Mason.

It was probably the first weekend in ages that they hadn’t seen each other in person. Even his mom commented on it. She probably missed her cooking buddy since Liam was all thumbs in the kitchen.

The self-imposed isolation did him good, though, because by Monday morning he felt enough like himself to acknowledge that he was a colossal ass who didn’t deserve the good people he had in his life. Thankfully, they all liked him too much to make him apologize for his assness.

He was far better company now that he was out of his funk and when Coach made them run laps before their off-season/in-house scrimmage, he didn’t get the slightest bit angry. Well…maybe a little irritated but who wouldn’t be with Finstock yelling at the top of his lungs every five seconds?

Finstock split the team in two, Shirts versus Skins, and Liam wound up on the Skins team opposite Scott. It felt a little weird playing against his Alpha, his wolf having a minor internal conflict when he was forced to tackle him, but the reassuring pat and smile from Scott as he helped him up afterwards eased the tension.

The game was exactly what he needed. It allowed him to release some pent-up aggression without losing control. It was also just really simple fun, which he hadn’t had in a while.

He was so caught up in the technical aspects of the game, eyes locked on his opponent as he charged to make a play, that he didn’t notice it at first.

_The scent_.

It was only when he sent the ball spiraling into the net, taking a deep breath after he released a triumphant _whoop_ , that he caught it.

It brought him up short, freezing him on the spot.

_No. It couldn’t be._

Frantic, he looked around, eyes going first to the tree-line at the edge of the woods before circling around and coming to a stop at the bleachers.

There, sitting beside Mason – who looked far too amused for Liam’s liking – was the last person he expected to see.

_Brett_.

Liam froze in the middle of the field, just staring at him. In the background, above what amounted to little more than white noise, he could hear his name being called: first Finstock, then Scott. It didn’t matter, though. He couldn’t take his eyes off him.

Brett looked…well, he looked like himself, trademark smirk and all. He certainly didn’t look like someone who’d basically been in a coma for a week after almost bleeding to death.

Before he realized what he was doing, he started moving. It was like he was being summoned, a pull the likes of which he’d never felt before drawing him to Brett. He couldn’t have resisted even if he’d wanted to, which he didn’t.

“Liam!” Scott called again, then more softly, for his ears – or any werewolf in the vicinity – only, “What are doing?”

“Sorry!” he whispered before coming to a stop in front of Brett. “What are you doing here?” he blurted.

_So much for finesse, Liam_ , that snarky inner voice teased.

Brett’s smirk grew into a full-fledged grin, his eyes crinkling at the corners. For a moment, with the sun hitting his eyes just so, Liam was blinded by the beauty of them.

“Nice to see you too, Liam.” He sounded fine too: his voice had that airy, constantly amused tilt to it that Liam was used to but had never noticed was a bit of a mismatch for someone of Brett’s size.

“ _Liam!_ ” Finstock roared.

He glanced over to see his coach standing by the bench, hands on his hips and eyes intent, like a bull rearing to charge.

_Shit!_

“Go ahead.”

Liam turned back to Brett, indecision flickering across his face. He didn’t know what the hell he was doing, walking off the field in the middle of a scrimmage, but he couldn’t leave until he knew for sure that Brett was okay.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Brett added, his tone and expression gentling, as if reading Liam’s thoughts. “I’ll be here.”

Feeling an embarrassed flush creeping into his cheeks, Liam was grateful for the covering of his helmet.

“I will too,” Mason quipped cheekily. “If that matters at all.”

Flush deepening, Liam nodded briefly then turned and returned to his spot, ignoring Coach’s intense glare.

The game still had another hour left but try as he might, Liam just couldn’t get his head into it. At one point, he had just stolen the ball from the opposing team and was making a turn to head towards their goal when his eyes just flitted across the benches, barely registering Brett laughing with his head thrown back, clutching his stomach as if Mason had said the funniest thing ever, and he’d become instantly distracted. He fumbled, bumped into another player and ended up on his ass.

_“Liam!”_ Coach screeched, causing him to wince at the high pitch.

_“Liam, focus,”_ Scott whispered sternly.

“ _Smooth, Liam_ ,” he heard Brett chuckle. “ _Very smooth.”_

There were literally voices in his head, he thought dazedly. If that wasn’t the definition of insanity, he didn’t know what was.

Ignoring the snickering of his teammates, though his cheeks were burning and bright red beneath his helmet, he stood and brushed himself off.

“Dunbar, get over here,” Finstock yelled.

Embarrassment growing, Liam jogged over, stopping a safe two feet away from Finstock’s mottled face.

“Grab your gear and hit the showers. I don’t know what’s going on in that head of yours but you’re no good to me like this so do whatever you have to to fix it, got that?”

Liam nodded sheepishly. “Yes, Coach.”

“Thank God this isn’t an actual game,” Coach muttered, more to himself than Liam. “I’d never live it down.” As if remembering that Liam was still there, he cleared his throat and said, “Now get out of my face. You’re lucky I’m not giving you laps.”

“Yes, Coach.”

As he made his way to the locker room, Liam was surprised to find himself smiling. Normally, he’d have been pissed at being publically dressed down in front of his teammates, even more pissed at himself for messing up in the first place but right now, in the moment, he honestly didn’t care. If anything he was happy because it meant that he was free to do whatever he wanted. _Or talk to whomever he wanted_.

He took what was probably the fastest shower of his high-school career so far, shampooing, soaping and rinsing with brisk efficiency. He did make sure to use some body spray after he dressed, though, in case he hadn’t gotten all the sweat.

As soon as he was done, he stashed his gear in his locker, grabbed his bag and headed out, intending to make his way back to the bleachers. But as the door swung closed behind him, he almost tripped over his feet coming to an abrupt halt.

“Hey,” he breathed.

Leaning against the wall beside the doors, arms crossed over his chest and signature smirk on his lips, was Brett.

“Hey.” He straightened, dropping his arms to his sides. “Nice show you put on out there.”

Liam flushed. _Geez_ , would his humiliation ever end?

Seeing his expression, Brett chuckled. “I’m just teasing. You looked really good, you know, when you weren’t falling on your ass.

“Thanks,” Liam muttered. A slight smile tugged at his lips and he gave into it. He just couldn’t _not_ right now.

They started down the hallway, falling into step with one another, or rather Brett shortening his steps to match Liam’s.

“Where’s Mason?” Liam asked, only just realizing the absence of his BFF.

“Still ogling the lacrosse team, I’d imagine,” Brett replied as if it was the most natural thing in the world which, for Mason, it was.

“Cool.”

They stepped out of the school, into the late afternoon sun. It had only just passed 5:00pm: still early.

There were a million questions buzzing through Liam’s mind but he wasn’t sure where to start.

Deciding to begin at the beginning, he asked, “What are you doing here?”

Brett glanced down at him before looking ahead once more. “A little birdie told me that I’d had a visitor. It didn’t take much brain power to figure out who.”

Liam’s flush returned, his gaze dropping to the asphalt of the parking lot.

Suddenly, Brett stopped walking. “Why did you come to see me, Liam?”

Liam’s eyes flitted up to meet Brett’s questioning ones before returning to the ground, cheeks flaming even more. “I just wanted to see how you were doing. I was worried.” There was no point in lying because Brett would know since he had yet to master the ability to lie to other werewolves.

“You could’ve asked Scott to call and find out,” Brett pointed out. “You could’ve called and found out yourself. Why did you _come_?”

It was a hard thing but somehow Liam managed not to squirm beneath Brett’s probing eyes.

“I had to see for myself that you were okay, alright?” He didn’t mean to sound defensive but it was hard, being this honest about something he didn’t quite understand himself.

He half expected Brett to press, to force him to admit more than he was ready – or able – but Brett surprised him by simply saying, “Okay.”

Liam listened to his heartbeat, the steadiness of it, and knew that he meant it. He wasn’t holding back further questions, wasn’t repressing any kind of emotion: he’d simply accepted Liam’s word as is.

He didn’t know why but it confused him as much as he appreciated it.

Forcing himself out of his head, he finally had the presence of mind to ask, “How are you feeling? Should you even be up and about so soon?” Something else finally occurred to him. “Wait…when did you wake up?”

For once, Brett had the grace to look embarrassed, scratching the back of his neck with a sheepish expression. “Yesterday.”

“ _Yesterday?!_ ” Liam growled. Yes, that was a growl. He was growling at this guy who was a foot taller than him and he didn’t care. “What the fuck are you doing out of bed so soon? Who even let you out of the house?”

To his chagrin, Brett burst out laughing and petted him on the head like he was a puppy who’d just done something cute. “Down, boy.” Again with the dog analogies.

“I’m serious, Brett,” he said urgently, the image of Brett bleeding, broken and lifeless in his arms flashing before his eyes. He could still feel the fear that had gripped him, still taste the acrid flavor of death that had hung in the air. “You should be taking it easy.”

Perhaps sensing the shift in his emotions, Brett sobered up, his expression once again gentle as he looked down at Liam.

“I’m fine. _Really_. I couldn’t stay put for a minute longer. You have no idea how it feels to be completely aware of your surroundings while your body decides to go on vacation. I was going crazy, rattling around in my head for the past week.”

Liam _did_ know, actually, since he’d been doing the same, ever since that first night at Sinema. At least being able to expend physical energy had helped a bit. Being physically unconscious but cognitively awake would probably have sent him off the deep end. Kinda like it did Peter Hale.

“I understand,” he said, knowing that Brett could hear the truth of it and thankful when he didn’t ask him to explain. “How did you get here anyway?”

Again, Brett looked like the cat caught stealing the cream, a light hint of colour blooming in his cheeks.

“I walked.”

It was on the tip of Liam’s tongue to scold him again but he really didn’t want to sound like his mother, especially since his feelings towards Brett were the opposite.

“I’ll walk you back,” he said instead. It occurred to him that maybe he should have asked but would he really have taken no for an answer?

Brett’s only response was to shrug his shoulders and start back walking, leading the way across the parking lot to the woods.

It occurred to Liam that if anyone were watching, anyone who didn’t have an inkling about the supernatural that is, that two boys disappearing into the woods together would stir some interesting thoughts, either of the “they’re up to no good” or the “they’re going to do _stuff_ ” variety. The first didn’t bother him so much as the second. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

“Anything happen while I was out?” Brett asked as they began making their way through the trees. “Did you guys ever find the chimera that attacked me?”

Liam shook his head. “No. He’s still out there somewhere. We do have the one we caught that night, though. He’s a bit more cooperative now than he was in the beginning. Then again being declawed would make anyone’s self-preservation instincts kick in.”

At Brett’s cocked, questioning brow Liam explained what had transpired in his absence.

“I see.”

“And the Dread Doctors have been suspiciously quiet in the past few days. It doesn’t feel right.”

“Like something bad’s coming,” Brett added.

“Exactly. I don’t like it one bit.”

They walked in silence for a while, picking their way carefully through the woods, ears cocked for any unusual sounds. It was quiet, though, barring the occasional flapping of wings.

Before he realized it, they were walking out of the woods into a low field and approaching a fence. Even from the back, he recognized the building, smiling when he saw it. He’d been right in thinking that it would have access to the woods in case the wolves needed to make a hasty getaway.

When they stopped, he expected Brett to start climbing or perhaps jump the fence in one huge leap so he was more than a little surprised when Brett opened a keypad that Liam hadn’t noticed and punched in a code. There was a small beep and a gate, which he also hadn’t noticed, swung open.

“Cool,” he whispered, fascinated. It really was like something out of the movies.

Brett chuckled. “Satomi figured that if we were going to bunker down here for a while, we needed the best defense possible.”

“Mr. Argent really knows his stuff,” Liam murmured.

“That he does.” Brett’s hand whipped out and grabbed Liam’s arm before he could touch the fence, which he’d been reaching for with a childish curiosity. “I _really_ wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

Liam blushed, embarrassed at having been caught.

Brett bent down and picked a couple of stalks of grass before straightening. He held them to the fence and Liam watched as they sizzled and dried up, a low electrical hum emanating from the fence.

“Cool…” He realized that he probably sounded like a dumb kid but since becoming a werewolf, he’d experienced so many things that he never thought possible outside of the movie theatre. This was just another one of them.

Brett merely smiled before leading the way through the gate, pausing to close it when Liam stepped through, before continuing to the back door of the building. After entering another code to admit them, Liam found himself back in the foyer where a familiar face sat behind the receptionist’s desk.

“Hey, Judith,” Brett greeted as they passed through.

“Hey, kid. Nice to see you up and about,” she replied with a smile, eyes flicking briefly over Liam. She didn’t say anything to him, though she didn’t look surprised to see him either.

“It’s good to be up and about.”

Liam silently followed in Brett’s wake, entering the elevator when Brett gestured for him to. He hadn’t really intended on staying, had honestly just wanted to see Brett home safely, but Brett kept going, seemingly expecting him to follow, and it didn’t once occur to him not to do so.

“The ground floor’s still got the original layout,” Brett explained, “for appearances’ sake. Occasionally we get a lost soul wandering in or someone curious about what we do here. The building is actually registered under a legitimate business. Mr. Argent said that the best way to hide is in plain sight and the more legal safety nets we have, the better.”

When the elevator stopped on the first floor, they got out. Liam looked around curiously, eyes swallowing everything. He could see cubicles, empty ones, and that took him by surprise.

“This part’s also the original space. Not so much for appearances as for necessity. The windows on the entire building,” Brett paused, gesturing to them, “are reflective so no one can see in but there’s always the chance of some hunter with specialized equipment or the windows breaking so Satomi left the front, on this floor anyway, as it was. Down here, however…”

Liam followed him to a door set into what was obviously a new wall – the paint was still relatively fresh and he could detect the smell of cement and plaster – dividing the space in half.

Brett pushed open the door and it was like they’d entered another dimension. The walls were painted in warm, inviting colours. Liam walked the length of a hall of sorts, mouth all but hanging open. It was a game room/living room/dining room/kitchen combination, taking up the entire length of that half of the floor. The “rooms”, except the dining room and kitchen which flowed one into the other, were sectioned off with a separate door for each. To allow privacy, he assumed.

He spotted a couple of people in the rooms as they passed but for the most part, they were empty. He briefly wondered how many people were even left in Satomi’s pack, considering that the majority of them had been killed during the deadpool, but he couldn’t bring himself to ask, not knowing whether it was a sore subject for Brett.

Brett led him to the end of the hall, where another door opened to the stairwell. They went upstairs to the second floor and here, Liam realized, was where the building had been completely pitted.

“This is home,” Brett announced, flashing a small smile at him.

Nothing remained of the original structure. Whatever had been there before had been replaced by a long hallway divided in two with doors interspersed every fifteen feet or so. There was an open sitting area, with cushy furniture, throw pillows and everything and one of the doors they passed opened into what looked like a study, the walls filled with mahogany bookshelves brimming with books. The rest of the doors were closed. Brett stopped at one about halfway down and opened it.

“Welcome to casa de la Brett,” he quipped.

Liam couldn’t help rolling his eyes, though a small grin spread across his lips.

He’d never really wondered what Brett’s room looked like, automatically assuming that it resembled the typical, entitled jock’s quarters: sports posters on the wall, half-naked girls too probably; trophies; a huge bed for all the sex he’d be having, etc.

He’d been right about the huge bed which, now that he thought about it, probably had more to do with Brett’s massive size than his sexual conquests, but he’d been wrong about all the rest. Brett’s room was surprisingly minimalist in its decoration.

There was the bed, a wardrobe, chest-of-drawers, desk/chair/laptop, a lounge chair beside the window which he could see overlooked the back of the property, and most surprising of all, a well-stocked bookshelf. And not just school books, from what Liam could see, but some philosophical type tomes that he knew he couldn’t begin to wrap his head around. And they weren’t all in English.

He spared a glance at the back of Brett’s head, wondering who the hell he was. He was shaping up to be a complete stranger, nothing like the Brett Liam had conjured in his mind.

The walls of Brett’s room were painted a deep blue and bare except for one large, framed painting of what looked like a temple.

Liam watched Brett as he walked around his room, dropping his phone onto his desk and kicking off his shoes. He noticed a slight wince when Brett stretched his arms above his head, saw his hand briefly touch his chest through his sweater before dropping to his side. Despite his assertions that he was fine, he was obviously not completely healed.

Just what kind of wolfsbane had he been dosed with, Liam wondered. The Dread Doctors were experimenting with natural properties and mutating them into something alien. What if the wolfsbane Brett had been poisoned with turned out to be far more dangerous than they’d expected? What if he wasn’t fine? What if he never fully recovered from his injuries?

“Liam!”

Hearing his name snapped him out of his thoughts and he looked up, taking an automatic step back when he realized that Brett was standing right in front of him.

There was a slight frown between Brett’s brows and Liam realized that his heart rate had picked up a bit while his mind wandered but Brett didn’t comment on it, merely grabbed the chair from his desk and set it beside his bed.

“Sit,” he commanded, dropping onto the edge of his bed.

Liam did as he was told, placing his bag on the floor beside the chair and clasping his hands in his lap. He looked around Brett’s room, out the window, everywhere but at the boy himself, their proximity unnerving him.

Brett, for his part, said absolutely nothing but Liam could feel his gaze on his face. It made his cheeks flame.

When the silence was on the verge of rubbing his nerves raw, he finally brought his eyes around to Brett’s, saying, “Well…this is awkward.”

“Is it?” Brett asked softly. “I think I could look at you for hours.”

Liam flushed, completely taken aback.

“What…” He licked his lips, mouth suddenly dry. “Brett…what are we doing?”

Brett cocked a brow. “What do you mean?”

“This…” He gestured between them. “Us. What is this?”

“I don’t know, Liam,” Brett replied casually, leaning back so that his weight rested on his hands. “You tell me.”

Liam didn’t know what to say. Honestly, he had never been more confused in his life. He had no idea how he’d even gotten to this point. All he’d wanted to do was walk Brett home. And why did he even want to that in the first place? A month ago, Brett Talbot was someone he avoided at all costs.

“I…I’m not like you,” he stammered. “Or Mason. I’m not gay.”

Brett shrugged. “So don’t be gay.”

“And I’m not bisexual.”

Brett shrugged again. “So don’t be that either.”

Liam’s cheeks were burning at this point. Brett and his nonchalance weren’t helping him at all.

Perhaps seeing his struggle, Brett straightened, sighing softly as he ran a hand through his hair.

“Liam. Society has a tendency, this _need_ , to put labels on everything. Just because society insists that everything must have a name doesn’t mean that you have to go along with the status quo. You can be anything you want to be. And you don’t have to be anything you don’t want to be.”

“I don’t know what I am,” he said in a small voice.

“Forget what you are then and answer me this: what do you _want_?”

Liam looked down at his hands for a second before meeting Brett’s gaze. “I don’t know. You and I used to hate each other but now…ever since that night. Things have gotten…weird.”

“I never hated you, Liam,” Brett said tenderly. “We had our differences and I was angry with you for a time, before I understood, but you never did anything that would’ve made me hate you.”

_Understood what?_ , Liam was about to query but before he could, Brett asked, “What’s weird now?”

Liam’s blush deepened. “I…Um. With…us. I…I’m not into guys, Brett. Never have been. But with you…it’s different somehow. Ever since that night, it’s been different.”

“Did you remember?” Brett asked, sounding slightly hopeful.

Liam shook his head. “No. But it doesn’t seem to matter, does it? I still feel…things.”

“What things?”

Brett was really going to make him spell it out, wasn’t he? If Liam wasn’t so embarrassed and nervous, he’d be inclined to get mad. What if Brett was just torturing him for the sake of it? What if he laid himself bare only to have Brett laugh in his face? Liam would be mortified.

“Look, Liam. Sex and sexuality aren’t as black and white as society would have you believe. You’re not gay: fine. You’re not bi either: that’s cool. Maybe you’re just Brett-sexual. I mean, who would blame you? Have you _seen_ me?” he joked, running an exaggeratedly sexy hand through his hair, lips tilting in his trademark smirk. His eyes twinkled with merriment, though, and somehow that calmed Liam’s frazzled nerves. “A little over half a century ago, some people honestly believed that missionary was the only _decent_ position people could have sex in, or that women didn’t actually enjoy sex: it was simply their duty. And don’t get me started on homosexuality or the struggle for equal rights. But the point is, if people spent all their time worrying about labeling or what society thought of them, they’d never get any living done. And how sad would that be? If people hadn’t stood up at some point and told society to go fuck itself, we would still be as backward as we were fifty plus years ago.”

Liam nodded slightly, knowing that Brett spoke the truth. It didn’t stop him from being confused, though.

“Instead of worrying so much about what you are or what your feelings mean, why don’t you just work on accepting those feelings and deciding what to do with them?” Brett paused. He seemed to be considering something, before continuing. “If it makes you feel any better, I’ve always found you attractive.”

Liam’s eyes widened at that shocking admission. He totally hadn’t seen that coming. “Really?”

Brett nodded. “I don’t make a habit of making moves on my teammates and you never gave me any reason to believe you were anything but straight so I never acted on it. But I’m not blind, Liam. I see you and there’s nothing _not_ to like.”

Liam tried not to squirm. He wasn’t used to being complimented and being told that he was hot by _Brett_ of all people? Fricking weird!

Clearing his throat, Liam asked, “How old were you when you realized you were…um…”

“Bisexual?” Brett finished for him. “I’ve always known. Sexuality is different for wolves, especially born ones. For us, it’s less about gender and more about attraction and compatibility. We’re inherently sexual creatures, or at least the wolf part of us is. That’s why you find that born-wolves become sexually aware, and active, at an earlier age than humans do.”

Once again, Liam’s eyes widened in surprise. “How old were you when…”

“…I lost my virginity?” Brett grinned. “Fourteen. She was part of the pack: two years older, crazy, fun. She didn’t care that I was younger and I certainly didn’t look my age anyway.”

Liam frowned slightly. “What did Satomi say about that?”

“I don’t think she was too happy but she understood. She’s a bitten wolf but she’s been around long enough to know how things are and that born-wolves are a slightly different breed, more given to instinct and carnal urges than our mortal counterparts. So long as we were safe, there was nothing she could really say.”

“What happened to her? The girl. Did she…” … _die_? Liam couldn’t bring himself to finish the question, unknowing whether it was a sore subject or not.

Brett shook his head. “She left about a year ago. We had already moved on from one another and she’d always felt like small-town pack-life wasn’t for her. She needed danger and entertainment and she wasn’t going to get that here. Little did she know,” he added with a smile.

Liam chuckled in response.

They lapsed into silence again, a comfortable one at first but as the seconds ticked by, Liam became painfully aware of Brett’s eyes on him. Those damn beautiful, far-too-knowledgeable eyes. It was all he could do not to squirm beneath their intensity.

“I feel like a kid getting _the sex talk_ from his mother,” he finally blurted, needing to break the silence.

“That’s interesting,” Brett said, voice dipping uncharacteristically low. “Considering my feelings towards you aren’t even remotely motherly.”

His straightforwardness shouldn’t have surprised Liam at this point – Brett had shown himself to be an open book at every turn, answering each question he’d asked with blunt honesty – yet it still amazed him how casually Brett acknowledged this… _whatever_ was brewing between them.

Caught in the beam of Brett’s eyes, Liam saw him moving in for the kill and had every opportunity to stop him, to say _no_ , but the thought never crossed his mind.

The first brush of Brett’s lips against his was soft, barely perceptible. One minute Brett was right _there_ , pupils so blown that they looked like they would completely swallow the irises; the next he was sitting back, as if he hadn’t moved at all.

Liam was in a state of shock, frozen to the spot. All he could do was look at Brett with wide eyes and blink.

Perhaps taking that as a sign to continue, Brett leaned in again. This time, his lips were slightly more insistent, though the kiss was still brief.

“Is this okay?” he asked, low and husky.

Liam managed a quick nod, his voice having abandoned him.

When Brett swooped in again, he didn’t hold back. He nibbled gently at Liam’s bottom lip, tugging until Liam parted his lips for him. Then he sealed their mouths together, one hand coming up to cup Liam’s cheek tenderly. His lips continued to move slowly, languidly over Liam’s and he didn’t shove his tongue into Liam’s mouth like he might have expected, instead tentatively stroking Liam’s tongue with the tip of his own.

Liam didn’t know what to think, could barely muster two thoughts to rub together, and his emotions were all over the place. The only thing he could say with any kind of certainty was that it felt good. When he felt a sigh, or moan, rising in his throat, it scared him.

Suddenly skittish, he pulled back quickly, dropping his gaze to his hands, avoiding Brett’s. “I think I’d better go.”

He didn’t look up at Brett so he couldn’t see the emotions flickering across his face but he did see him stand.

“Okay.” For once, he was grateful for Brett’s go-with-the-flow approach to everything, although he couldn’t help feeling a moment’s disappointment, wondering if the reason Brett was okay with it was because he hadn’t enjoyed the kiss after all.

The walk out and elevator ride down was a silent one. Judith waved goodbye to him as he passed through the foyer to the front door.

“Are you going to walk back?” Brett asked. Neither his voice nor his expression gave anything away about his thoughts or emotions. It reminded Liam of Satomi’s ever-present stoicness. It was driving Liam crazy.

“No, I think I’ll take the bus,” he replied softly.

“I’ll walk you to the bus-stop.”

“You don’t ha…”

“I’ll walk you.”

Liam clamped his lips shut, walking quietly beside Brett as they made their way down the sidewalk. If he was honest with him, he would admit that he was silently fuming. He didn’t know why but everything had become awkward when he put a stop to the kiss. Or it _felt_ that way, at least. It made him feel edgy, like something strange and uncomfortable was crawling around beneath his skin. He didn’t like it one bit.

They reached the stop shortly after and Liam expected Brett to leave immediately but he didn’t. Brett stood there, still silent, while he waited for the bus to arrive. Ten minutes of no talking had Liam’s nerves almost completely frayed by the time the bus rolled up. He released a sigh of relief, turning to Brett to say goodbye.

The look on Brett’s face stopped him in his tracks.

It was so open, so…he didn’t know what to call it. The answer to every question he might have wanted to ask Brett about what he felt, what he wanted, was etched into the creases of his eyes, the curve of his lips.

“I meant what I said earlier,” Brett said sincerely. “Figure out what you want and we’ll go from there, okay?”

Liam nodded mutely.

Brett placed a chaste kiss on his temple and stepped aside.

Dazed, Liam got onto the bus and dropped into a random seat. It didn’t even occur to him to look out the window until the bus-stop was long out of sight.

When he finally came to his senses, however, he realized that the jitterbugs had dissipated. Whether it was Brett’s words or his parting kiss, he didn’t know. Whatever it was, his anxiety was gone.

A soft smile played at the corners of his lips and after a while, not second-guessing himself for once, he pulled out his phone and dialed _one_. As soon as the call connected, without waiting for the person on the other end to greet him, he spoke.

“I think I’m ready.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Liam finally finds out what happened during the "forgotten" night. It's not as bad as he imagined.
> 
> He and Brett talk...a LOT.

“Are you sure you wanna do this?”

Liam rolled his eyes and stifled a sigh, throwing a glare in his best friend’s direction.

Mason was propped up against a wall of pillows on Liam’s bed, munching on a handful of popcorn. When Liam had called to tell him that he was finally ready to remember what had happened _that night_ , Mason had rushed right over, bringing the essentials to spend the night and go straight to school the next morning. Liam wondered if his friend realized how ridiculous he looked in his Star Wars pajamas. It was a limited-edition collectible in the style of Obi Wan Kenobi’s robe and trousers and Liam himself had saved months to buy it for him for Mason’s birthday a couple years prior, that was true, but still: _Star Wars_. He couldn’t deny the pleasure he felt seeing him in it, though. Despite the fact that Mason was several inches taller now and the pants reached above his ankles, he’d taken excellent care of it – as he did with everything, naturally – and still wore it faithfully.

“For the thousandth time, Mase: _yes_ , I’m sure.” He crawled onto the foot of his bed, curling his legs as he sat facing his friend, and braced himself for what he was about to hear. “Now start before I change my mind.”

“Okay.” Licking butter residue off his fingers, Mason sat up, folding his legs Indian style. “Where do I begin?”

Liam shrugged. “At the club, I guess. Everything kinda faded out after you came back from the bathroom.”

“Speaking of,” Mason chirped delightedly. “I must say, the last thing I expected to find when I returned from relieving myself was you and Mr. Thirst-Quencher grinding on one another. Imagine my shock and amazement.”

“That didn’t stop you from making out with him mere moments later,” Liam grumbled petulantly, only realizing that he’d sold himself out when Mason raised a speculative brow.

“You remember that, huh?”

Liam tried not to squirm beneath the weight of his gaze but it was tough. “I told you I remembered some things.”

“Hmm…Interesting. Anyway, we danced for a bit but when you started dozing off, Brett realized that whatever he gave you must have been too strong so we decided it was time to go. He came along to help me get you inside and when we did, you invited us to stay. You were really giggly too. Never knew you had that in you, Li.” Mason’s smile widened when his friend shifted uncomfortably. “So now we get to the good stuff but before I go on, just how detailed do you want me to get? Cuz, you know, I can get really graphic if you want me to. Like…per second play-by-play. Or…every touch, kiss, stroke…”

“Mase!” Liam took a deep breath, counted to five, and then released it slowly. “Summarize. _Briefly_.”

“You’re no fun,” Mason whined. Perking up, he smiled mischievously as he continued. “Well, you were being a laughing fool and honestly, it was hilarious to watch. It also kinda helped keep things light and casual. I don’t think anyone intended for anything to happen. I know I personally just wanted to get you inside and when you asked us to stay, I was like “ _sure_ ” cuz, you know, I sleep here all the time. Brett was just going with the flow, I think. But as we started getting ready for bed, things just…happened. Blame it on the alcohol, if you will, and maybe us being hormonal teenagers but we just started kissing – he’s an excellent kisser, by the way – and things progressed from there. You were still laughing at first – I swear I’ve never seen you so jovial – but then the _master_ turned his attentions on you and…” Mason’s expression sobered a bit. “You know, I have to admit that for a while there I almost considered leaving.”

A shiver ran down Liam’s spine. “Why?”

“Well…when you guys started making out, I watched because…well, what else was I going to do? We were all in the same bed and I haven’t had many opportunities to observe people getting it on up close and personal so I figured I’d better take advantage of the situation, even though it was my best friend and a guy I’d had not-too-pure thoughts about in the past. But…after a while, I started to feel like a peeping-tom. From where I was standing – well, lying actually – it looked really intimate and emotional, like two people making love, not just fooling around. I started feeling like a voyeur, like I was seeing something that wasn’t meant for an outsider’s eyes.”

Liam’s cheeks burned furiously. He wished that he could say that he didn’t know what Mason was talking about but he did. The first strong memory from that night had been the one of him looking up at Brett, Brett looking back with an intense, unreadable expression. The memory had fleshed out a bit more after their second run-in at Sinema, during the week that Brett was unconscious and he’d been thinking about him almost nonstop. He remembered, with more than a little embarrassment, practically _cooing_ about how stupidly pretty Brett’s face was.

 _“How can a boy be as pretty as you?”_ he’d asked him, sounding like an idiot to his own ears now that he wasn’t under the influence. _“The mind boggles. Your ridiculous hair and your stupid, stupid eyes. And don’t get me started on your lips. And your teeth! What pretty teeth you have, wolfy.”_

Then there was the kiss. That memory had become more detailed too. Brett had indeed kissed him like he was trying to relay some kind of message with his lips but Liam had kissed him back like he was drowning and Brett was the only thing keeping him buoyant, keeping him alive. He’d also remembered feeling relieved in the moment, for some reason. It was an odd emotion to have while kissing someone. Then Brett had broken away and started kissing down his neck and the memory fizzled out again.

“Don’t get me wrong, it was hot – _damn_ was it hot – but you’re my best friend and there was obviously something going on there that neither of you seemed to be aware of and I just felt…invisible. I don’t know if Brett realized that, maybe he heard my heartbeat change or smelt it on me or something, but before I could make up my mind about whether to go or stay, he was back and…yeah, I wasn’t going anywhere then.”

Liam frowned and this time he did squirm. He told himself that he shouldn’t be jealous of his friend – like Mason said, none of it was planned and he could only imagine how excluded Mason had felt when he and Brett were having their “moment” – but considering that he was on the verge of admitting that he did indeed have feelings for Brett – at least to himself – hearing that his best friend had been getting it on with the guy with him in the bed next to them was a tough pill to swallow.

“As for what physically took place, there were hands involved, mostly mine and Brett’s, lots of kissing and _yes_ , orgasms were enjoyed by all, but that’s it. Nothing but hands wandered south of the border and you and I didn’t touch each other whatsoever,” Mason added hastily.

Liam nodded, swallowing thickly. “I didn’t think so.”

“After that, we went to sleep – you were already out long before we were – and well…you know what happened next. You woke up, flipped your shit and here we are.” Mason grinned cheekily. “See, it wasn’t so bad, was it?”

Liam shrugged nonchalantly. “I guess not.”

“You could’ve skipped all that mental aggravation if you’d just let me tell you in the first place.” Sobering slightly, Mason gave his friend a considering look. “Does your suddenly wanting to fill in the blanks have anything to do with your visitor today? Where did you two disappear to anyway?”

Liam’s blush returned. “I walked him home. Do you know that he only woke up yesterday? I don’t know what he was thinking.”

Mason cocked his head to the side, giving Liam that look that he knew meant his friend was thinking a million things he wouldn’t like. “Huh.”

Liam’s eyes narrowed but he didn’t say anything.

After a moment, Mason’s expression changed, suddenly turning serious. “Li…I just want to say that if I’d had any idea how out of it you really were, I never would’ve let anything happen. I just…you seemed so into it so I didn’t think you didn’t want it.”

Liam blushed deeply from embarrassment and it was all he could do not to look away from his friend’s gaze. He appreciated Mason’s concern, though – it was what made him such an awesome bro, after all – and he deserved to be looked in the eye when he was being so sincere.

“I know and it’s fine. You didn’t…nothing happened…” He cleared his throat, doing his best not to squirm again as he tried to find his words. He’d never been the most eloquent of speakers but lately he felt like he had some sort of brain-to-mouth speech disorder. “I’m…I _was_ okay with it. It’s cool.”

Mason nodded. “Good.” He stayed silent for all of a second before a smile spread across his face again and he started poking Liam with his toes. “So….What exactly is going on between you and Mr. hunka-hunka-burning-love? I mean…I _should_ be mad since I called dibs first.”

“You did _not_ call dibs,” Liam retorted, not realizing until it was too late that he’d fallen for Mason’s trap. “And nothing’s going on.”

“Uh huh,” Mason chirped, clearly unconvinced. “And the dibs were implied. I mean, who would’ve known you were competition? _I_ certainly didn’t and we’ve been best friends since forever.”

Shifting – squirming – slightly in his spot, Liam picked absently at his bedsheet. “Are you going to be okay with it? I mean…if something does happen. Not that it’s going to for sure or anything but _if_...”

Mason’s heartbeat remained steady, his smile genuine as he said, “It’s cool, man, don’t worry about it. Brett’s hot, there’s no denying that, but it’s not like we had something brewing so you’re not getting in the way of anything. I mean, I still would’ve liked to climb him like a tree but…at least I got a sample and the memories of that one night will last me a long, long time.” He grinned wickedly. “A long, _long_ time.”

Liam allowed himself a short glare before smoothing his features. If Mason could be relaxed about it, so could he. “Cool.”

“You’ll be fine, Li,” Mason said confidently, leaning forward to pat him on the knee. “I know you and you’re probably torturing yourself about what this all means, what it says about you and your preferences. Just don’t. There’s no need for a big gay crisis. Brett likes you; you like him. That’s all that matters.”

“I don’t know if I _like_ him like him,” Liam grumbled, picking nervously at his sheet again.

“You like him. Trust me on this. I’ve never seen you this stupid over anyone before, not even Hayden back in 6th grade. Hell, you should’ve seen yourself today, fumbling and flopping all over the place like Gumby.”

“Shut up!”

Mason jabbed him with his big toe, grinning from ear to eat. “It was adorable. I know that Brett certainly thought so.”

Bright spots of colour flared in Liam’s cheeks once more.

“Aww, look at you blushing. Really, Liam, what is this guy doing to you?” Mason laughed.

“Ugh!” Liam groaned, burying his face in his hands.

“You look happy, Li,” Mason commented, voice gentle. “If for that reason alone, I’m glad you stole my man from me.”

Liam raised his head and threw a hard scowl at Mason, only to be met with unapologetic mischief.

“When are you seeing him again?”

Liam shrugged. “I don’t know. We haven’t really made any plans or anything.”

Mason nodded in understanding. “That’s okay. Everything will happen in its own time.”

A comfortable silence fell between them and Liam let his mind drift a little bit, absently wondering what Brett was up to at that moment.

“You know, Li,” Mason began conversationally, reaching for a handful of popcorn from the bowl beside him. “When I said that statistically someone from your team had to be on mine, I never expected it to be _you_.”

“That’s it!” Liam growled, before lunging at his friend.

They wrestled for a while, popcorn spilling everywhere and loud screeches filling the room, before Liam’s mother came in, made them clean up and put them to bed, ie., reminded them that they had school in the morning and would be hard enough to wake up as it was.

 

An hour or so later, Liam found himself lying in bed, swamped in darkness and staring at his ceiling, Mason snoring softly beside him.

He usually fell asleep quite quickly, except for when his mind was working overtime, which it was just then. He wasn’t worried about anything – talking to Mason had really helped ease his mind about what had happened during those missing moments – but he felt anxious nonetheless. Now that everything was basically out in the open, where did they go from there? Where did he _want_ them to go? What did Brett want exactly?

The sudden vibration of his phone on the bedside table drew him out of his thoughts.

Frowning, he reached for it and saw that he had a text. Opening it, he was surprised to see who it was from.

 _Sleeping?_ , it read.

 _No_ , he texted back, ignoring the way his heartbeat picked up as he rolled onto his side, away from Mason.

_I know. I can hear your heart racing._

Wait, _what_? Was Brett _here_?

Swinging his legs to the side, Liam raced to his window, only remembering when he was about to open it that he couldn’t see the front of the house from there. He briefly considered climbing through the window to make a silent escape but thought that was about as creepy as it would have been if Brett had scaled the side of his house to come in. Romantic in movies, not so much in real life.

Slipping his feet into a pair of slippers and passing a few rough fingers through his hair to arrange the mess, he padded down the hall and down the stairs lightly to the front door, deactivated the alarm and, after waiting a minute to ensure that the house was still quiet, opened the front door.

Brett leaned casually against the porch railing, feet crossed at the ankles.

“Hey,” he greeted with a smile, as if his sudden appearance was completely normal.

“Hi,” Liam breathed. He cleared his throat, forcing a severe expression onto his face despite the fact that his heart was beating double-time now that Brett was in front of him and they _both_ knew it. He stepped outside and closed the front door softly behind him, crossing his arms over his chest. “What are you doing here?”

Brett shrugged. “Couldn’t sleep. Figured you might be having the same problem.” He cocked his head to the side, a smug grin settling on his lips. “Turns out I was right.”

Ignoring the heat that burned his cheeks at Brett’s boast, Liam asked, “Are you in the habit of visiting…people in the middle of the night?”

“Not _people_ , no,” Brett replied, the word intentionally loaded.

Liam blinked. He didn’t know if he would ever stop being shocked at how straightforward Brett was, and how easily he rolled with this unexpected and sudden change in their relationship. Liam should resent him for it, if only out of envy since he was struggling, but it strangely made him feel secure. At least one of them knew what the hell they were doing.

“How are you feeling?”

Brett shrugged again. “Good. I mean, I feel fine and I think I’d be more than capable of going back to school tomorrow but Satomi insists that I stay home the rest of the week.”

“She’s just worried about you.”

“She’s like one of those doting grandmothers who’s always poking and prodding, trying to force you to eat when they think you’re too thin.”

Liam raised his brows in surprise. “She doesn’t look the type.”

Brett smiled. “You’ll understand when you get to know her better.”

Liam blushed at the implication in Brett’s words, thankful for the cover of darkness.

“Mason’s here,” Brett commented abruptly.

Liam nodded. “Yeah.”

“Study date?”

“Not really?” Liam took a moment, wondering if he was ready to be as honest and open with Brett as Brett always was with him, before speaking again. _Oh, to hell with it_. “I called him on the way home. I…decided that I was finally ready to know what had happed…that night.”

“I see.”

Brett’s words lingered in the air and Liam felt the urge to squirm again. Before he started shifting from foot to foot, he walked over to the porch steps and plopped his ass down instead.

Seconds later, Brett joined him. “How did that go?”

“It was…enlightening. To be honest, I had already begun to remember some stuff. I just needed him to fill in the blanks.”

“You could’ve asked _me_ ,” Brett pointed out.

“Yeah,” Liam acknowledged. “Mason’s…easier, you know?”

Brett nodded. “I understand.” He paused for a moment. “So what now?”

Liam glanced over at him, then quickly looked away when he realized that Brett was staring at him, his gaze even more intense than usual.

“I don’t know. Are you leaving it up to me?” He was really proud of himself, still being able to verbalize despite the fact that his stomach was in knots. This was completely new territory for him. It wasn’t just the fact that Brett was a guy: Liam had never dated _anybody_.

“Yes,” Brett stated matter-of-factly.

“Why?” Liam groused.

“Because you’re the one having trouble here. And given the way this thing started, I want to make sure that you know that you have complete control over everything that happens from here on out. Or _doesn’t_ happen, as the case may be.”

“I’ve never done this before,” Liam admitted, running a frustrated hand through his hair. “I’ve never dated anyone, least of all a guy, whereas you…you’ve dated lots of people.”

“I wouldn’t say _dated_ exactly…”

Liam turned to face Brett, eyes flickering over his face as he wondered if it would ever cease to amaze him how up front Brett was about his sex life.

“You’ve been with people then. Dates, hookups: any and all combinations.”

Brett nodded.

“I don’t know…I don’t know if I can do that. I don’t know how to be…casual about those things. I can’t be just another one of many.”

“I’m not asking you to. And you wouldn’t be.”

“And the physical stuff. What if I can’t… _you know_.”

Brett laughed. “Liam. You worry too much.”

“I’m serious!” he snapped, elbowing Brett in the side.

“Well, then we wait.”

“Until…?”

“Until you’re ready, silly.”

“And if I never am?”

Brett shrugged again. “Then we move on. We’ll stay friends and that’ll be the end of it.”

“God, _what is my life_ ,” Liam muttered, rubbing a hand over his face. “I can’t believe I’m sitting on my porch in the middle of the night talking about _dating_ Brett Talbot. The same Brett Talbot who would’ve killed me if he’d had the chance six months ago.”

“Firstly, I _did_ have the chance six months ago and although I may have roughed you up a little, I didn’t do any real damage. And secondly, I’m too pretty to go to jail. No one’s worth that, not even you, Dunbar.”

Liam tried to elbow him again but this time, Brett caught his elbow, long fingers trailing up his arm until they reached Liam’s[fingers] and wrapped around them, holding his hand.

Liam felt heat suffuse his cheeks once more and looked away, although he didn’t try to tug his hand from Brett’s grip.

“I really thought you hated me,” Liam said softly.

“Not hate,” Brett corrected, much like he had earlier that day.

“It felt like it, that day in Coach’s office. You glared at me the entire time, even though you didn’t say a word. I thought for sure that you wanted to kick my ass and I was half glad, half sad that my mom was there. Glad because she was a buffer and sad because I think I felt like I deserved to get my ass kicked by the team for fucking up, or you at least as their representative.”

“I didn’t hate you, Liam, but I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t angry. I was pissed. We’d had a good thing going. Yeah, I knew you had a temper but you were an invaluable player and I thought for sure that in time you’d get it under control. But then…”

“I fucked up,” Liam finished for him. “I didn’t mean to, it’s just…Coach was always riding me. He was such a prick. It felt like he was always singling me out, always punishing me. It felt like he treated me worse than everyone else.”

“He didn’t, though. We all got our fair share, Liam. It wasn’t just you, trust me. And if he pushed you, it’s only because he knew you were capable of great things. He’d never have invested that much time in you if he didn’t think you were worth it. Hell, he wouldn’t have hand-picked you, a puny freshman, for the team if he didn’t think you had something special. Do you know how many guys have tried out for the team, year after year, and been rejected? Most of us come up through the Devenford system, from Montessori all the way through high school, so he gets to see our potential as we grow. You literally just finished middle school in Devenford and were on the team by freshman year. That _never_ happens.”

“I know… You’re right. I was just…so angry.” Liam tugged at his hair, embarrassment at his bad behavior rolling over him. “I’d really wanted to play that last game and he benched me. It just didn’t seem fair. It’s no excuse but I really wasn’t thinking straight. Seeing you guys out there kicking ass as a team…I felt left out. At the time, there was only one person to blame and that was Coach. He had to pay so…” He shrugged. “I’m not denying that I’m an idiot, clearly the evidence speaks for itself, but in my defense I wasn’t in complete control of my faculties at the time.”

“I know. Well, _now_ I do. Back then, I thought you were acting out like a child, throwing a tantrum. I didn’t want you to get kicked out but the rules are what they are and there was no way that Devenford would let you stay. Looking back, it was probably for the best. I don’t think staying there, especially after what happened, would have been good for you.”

Liam glanced over at him. “Why do you say that?”

“Come on, Liam. You know how those guys are. They would’ve made your life hell. And I wouldn’t have helped because I was still angry.”

“What finally changed your mind?”

“After the scrimmage between Devenford and Beacon Hills, when I recovered from the almost _dying_ thing, I finally looked it up, this I.E.D. that you have. I’d always wondered about it, ever since your mom explained it to Coach. I was just so mad at the time that it sounded like an excuse for being a little brat. _“Liam has anger issues.”_ So fucking what? We all get angry sometimes. It’s only when I really read about it and listened to stories from people who suffer from it that I finally understood and I felt sorry for the way I’d treated you. Maybe if I’d given you the benefit of the doubt or looked it up sooner, it might’ve made things easier on you. I mean, it would’ve been far too late and not made a damn bit of difference where Coach was concerned but sometimes it helps having someone in your corner when it feels like the rest of the world is against you.”

Liam nodded. It truly amazed him how different Brett, _this_ Brett, was from the Brett he’d thought he’d known. Maybe it had just been a figment of his imagination, a Brett he’d created in his mind to make it easier to hate him.

“Is that why you helped me during the game when I was…”

“Freaking out?” Brett smiled. “Maybe. I hadn’t really thought about it but maybe. Mostly, I helped you because I knew that you were a newly turned wolf and you were obviously struggling to keep calm and stay in control. _Something_ was terrifying you and if you’d exposed yourself on the field, _what_ you were, we’d _all_ be in trouble. And then there was the fact that Scott had saved my life so I felt like I owed him.”

“Thanks,” Liam grumbled. He was grateful, truly he was, but expressing gratitude – or emotions in general – had never been his forte. “I’m sorry I called you an orphan,” he muttered, ashamed.

Brett blinked. “You did? When?”

Liam squirmed. “In Coach’s office. You were just sitting there, silently fuming, and I felt like you were judging me the entire time. I thought, _“Who’s he to judge me anyway? What the hell is he even doing here?”_ ”

“I didn’t notice,” Brett said honestly. “I guess I was too busy _silently fuming_.”

Liam ducked his head in embarrassment.

“As for why I was there, that was all Coach. He felt that there needed to be someone from the team there and I was one of the more senior players you were closest to, despite only being a sophomore. Plus he was grooming me to be Captain one day so he felt that was part of it, I suppose.”

Liam grunted. “Still, ‘m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Brett assured him with a soft smile. “You weren’t exactly wrong. I _am_ an orphan.” He paused. “If you don’t mind my asking, what causes it? Your outbursts? And when did it start?”

No one had ever asked Liam that question before. His parents knew the technicalities of his disorder, obviously and so did Mason but whereas the doctors had informed his mom, and she subsequently explained it to his dad, who was a doctor himself, Mason had taken to the internet for research like he did with everything he was curious about. He’d never asked Liam questions, had simply been there to support him in the aftermath.

“When I was eight, my dad left. He didn’t really give an explanation, just packed up his things one day and left. Said he couldn’t do it anymore. At the time, I had no idea what that meant and I honestly still don’t. I mean, what kind of person walks out on their family? But he did so…” Liam shrugged, wishing he could shrug off the painful pang in his chest as he spoke just as easily. “My mom was confused, maybe even more than I was. They hadn’t been fighting or anything, not like you hear about when people get divorced. Sure they had the occasional argument but what couple doesn’t? And I won’t lie and say he’d been a bad dad or anything .We had a lot of good times, good memories. It’s what made it so confusing.

After he left, I could tell that my mom was sad. She wouldn’t let me see, always smiled and assured me that daddy loved me and it wasn’t my fault, but at night I would hear her crying in her room. I’d sit outside her door listening until she cried herself to sleep. I felt so helpless. And I still wasn’t convinced that it wasn’t my fault. Children can be a burden sometimes and maybe I was more than dad could bear. And it didn’t help that I would remember the many times mom had told me how much I looked like him. I wondered if I was a constant reminder, if my very presence was hurting her. I asked her once if dad would come back if I left and she hugged me and said she’d never trade me for anything in the world. At the time, all I could think was that she hadn’t said “no” so maybe it _was_ my fault somehow.

Mason tried to be there for me as much as he could. I don’t know if he truly understood what was happening or how I felt but he’s always been pretty empathetic and he did his best to be a good friend. His parents were extra nice and affectionate whenever I came over but I could see the pity in their eyes and it felt like they were trying too hard to make up for my dad’s absence. Despite everything, I was still me. Sweet and quiet Liam Dunbar, or so my mother says.

It wasn’t until I was almost ten when I started losing control. It was just little things at first. Feeling irritable and twitchy and snapping at anyone who looked my way. Well, anyone who wasn’t a friend. I never took it out on Mason or my mom. I was always good to them, _for_ them. For some reason, even feeling like I was going insane, that was always important to me. But whereas before I would shrug it off if someone bumped into me in the hallway or stepped on my foot, now I would flip and try to pick a fight. If a teacher snapped at me in class, I would snap right back. It’s like I _needed_ to make them pay. My mom kept getting called in and I felt like such a disappointment to her. She didn’t understand because as far as she was concerned, at home I was the perfect child. But she made it easy to be good when she was always so good to me.

Things started getting tight financially and my mom had to go back to work for the first time in…well, ever. She got pregnant with me straight out of college and my dad had that whole sole breadwinner/white picket fence suburban dream so she stayed home with me and only worked part time at first before quitting her job altogether. They could afford it at the time but when he left, money was scarce and she had no choice but to go back to work. That, more than anything, made me feel useless and burdensome. I thought “if only I was older and could take care of her” instead of her having to worry about keeping a roof over my head. Or if I’d never been born, maybe she’d have had a better life. Even if dad had still left, at least she’d only have herself to worry about. Dad wasn’t in the picture at all, beyond child support once the divorce was final, and mom had me to take care of and a mortgage to pay. It didn’t seem fair. I resented him so much but I couldn’t do anything to hurt my mother, to make things more difficult for her. It was a lot easier to act out at school because everyone there was a dick, or not far from it, teachers included.

Eventually, after more incidents and the principal warned us that I could get kicked out if I continued acting up, my mom took me to a shrink. She tried to get me to talk but if you hadn’t noticed, talking isn’t exactly my thing.”

“Until today,” Brett teased.

Liam scraped tried to scrape Brett’s palm with a nail as revenge but Brett merely tightened his hold on his hand.

“So that was a wash and a waste of money, which I felt even more guilty about, so I thought that if I could learn to control myself on my own, or at least hide my outbursts so that no one could tell my mom, things would be better. That’s easier in theory than it was in actuality. The problem with I.E.D. is that when that flip gets switched on, it doesn’t just switch back off. There are like steps to it. There’s a trigger, the outburst, and then the bottom drops out and it’s like “oh shit, what did I do now?” It’s hard to resist giving into the urge to act out once your fuse has been lit. There was one time when a kid knocked over my backpack. He said sorry but he grinned when he said it and I could tell that he wasn’t the least bit remorseful. He didn’t even try to help me pick up the things that had spilled out so how sorry could he really have been? So do you know what I did?”

Brett shook his head.

“He knocked over my backpack so I knocked _him_ over. Right in front of my entire class. That was the first time I’d ever put my hands on someone. I’d always been really passive-aggressive about things up until then, mostly indulging in vocal spats and stomping when I felt unfairly treated, kicking the wall, lockers, whatever was handy. Occasionally knocking things off a desk, but never hitting people. It’s like going into a fugue state and coming out having lost track of time. Everyone was looking at me like I was crazy.

As time passed, it got progressively worse, more violent, and eventually I tipped over the edge.

There was this one kid who would always pick on me because he was bigger and I was puny. I mean, I get it: I’m short. You’d have to be blind not to see that. When I was a little less unhinged I let it slide and took it out on someone else instead but eventually I’d had enough. He said something about my mom, about how I was fatherless and my dad had run away from me, and I lost it. Obviously since he had the size advantage, he wasn’t going to take it lying down. It would’ve been shameful for him to lose a fight to someone my size but even though he did eventually bust my nose, I left my mark on him too. He was suspended, I was expelled and that, as they say, is the end of that.”

The corners of Brett’s lips twitched. “Not quite. How’d you end up in Davenford?”

“After I got kicked out of school, my mom homeschooled me for a while. She’d leave me with a neighbor during the day and we’d have class in the evening when she got home from work. I felt horrible, of course, like I was a huge disappointment and failure to her. Looking back, I think she felt the same. That she had failed me somehow. I was also seeing the shrink again and she had me on some pills that made me feel disembodied. I hated it. Anyway, dad had been gone long enough that she’d started dating casually again. Sometimes, if she liked the guy enough she’d bring him home to meet me. I tried not to be openly rude, not wanting to embarrass her, but I could see that some of them didn’t give a shit about me. They were just playing nice for mom. Sometimes, if she left us alone, I’d let go just a little, especially if I hadn’t taken my pills for the day or they were wearing off, and give them a taste of how terrible I could truly be. None of them stuck around for very long. Not until she met my dad, that is.

He was nice from the get go but not the kind that talked to me like I was two or petted my hair like I was a cute dog or something. It immediately made me suspicious. He was a doctor so mom had kind of clued him into what was going on with me. One day when she was in the kitchen, he asked me if I’d ever played lacrosse. I said no so he offered to teach me. I thought that he was just trying to schmooze me to get closer to mom but the next time he came over, he brought a couple of beat-up old sticks and a ball and took me to the park. Learning can be difficult when you feel discombobulated but the focus and discipline needed for lacrosse really helped.

When things started getting serious between them – as in, I’m pretty sure that they were already engaged but they’re decided not to tell me just yet – he offered to get me into Devenford, which was his Alma Mater. Obviously he had to help with the tuition because mom was not making that kind of dough so that sorta clued me in to how serious they were as well. Devenford accepted me on the condition that I continued my therapy and the meds but as I got more into the lacrosse, first with my dad and then with the middle school team, I realized that the meds were getting in the way so I stopped. I didn’t tell anyone and since playing lacrosse was keeping me in check, I figured I was good, maybe even cured, and no one needed to know. Clearly, I was wrong.”

Brett chuckled.

“And well, you do know the rest from there.”

“Are you back on your meds?” Brett asked.

Liam shook his head.

“Don’t you need it more now than ever? I mean, with the wolf thing thrown into the mix, it can’t be easy.”

“It’s not but surprisingly, being bitten has helped in a way. Destroying Coach’s car or punching some kid in the face is the least of my worries. Now I _can_ actually kill someone. And not just that, there’s the constant fear of exposing myself, or Scott and the others. Fear is a prime motivator. I feel like I have to be more responsible now, no excuses. Besides, the meds wouldn’t work anymore, would they?”

“Probably not,” Brett admitted. “It can’t be easy, though.”

“It’s not. It’s a struggle. I don’t want to hurt anyone. I’m constantly afraid of losing control, which I did not too long ago.”

This time, Brett gave into his smile. “I heard.”

“Mason needs to learn to keep his mouth shut!” Liam growled.

“He was just filling me in on what I’d missed.” Brett’s gaze turned speculative. “What tripped you off that night, anyway?”

Liam shrugged, feigning nonchalance. “Dunno.”

“Liam.”

Sighing, he ran a hand through his hair. “I thought you’d died, okay? I don’t deal well with loss. One minute you were in my arms, your blood literally draining out of you, and the next you were gone. And they let them take you. I would never hurt anyone I cared about on purpose but at the time, it felt like they weren’t on my side. And I was so helpless that I just let it happen. I was terrified and choking on it and I dealt with the fear the only way I knew how. I haven’t felt that afraid since…” He trailed off.

“Since that day on the field?” Brett offered.

Liam shook his head. “No, actually. I’d been having nightmares about Berserkers and I kept seeing them everywhere I went. I saw one on the field that day, saw it kill you and it was coming for me next. Then you knocked me on my ass and broke me out of it. But that’s not it. After you were poisoned, Garrett kidnapped me to blackmail Scott into helping him get Violet back. He poisoned me with the same wolfsbane they used on you and dumped be down a well. When I was down there, alone and once again feeling helpless, thinking I was going to die, that no one was going to come save me, I was terrified. I tried to climb up over and over but I couldn’t get a good grip and kept slipping back down. I was growing weaker, I could feel the wolfsbane spreading and thought that for sure, this was it. I was going to die here. No one was coming to save me. I was going to die alone and I just felt so…” For the first time that night, words failed him.

“Abandoned.”

Liam licked suddenly dry lips, looking down at their joined hands when he nodded. “Yeah.”

“I know how that feels.”

Liam shifted his body slightly, turning towards Brett. “Your parents?”

It was Brett’s turn to nod. “Sometimes people leave of their own volition, sometimes they’re taken away. I never acted out the way you did but it didn’t mean that I wasn’t angry. I never blamed them for dying but sometimes I’d wish that I had died with them. Anything would be better than the pain I felt. Then I’d think of Lori here, all alone without me, and I knew that things had worked out the way they were supposed to. I obviously wouldn’t have wanted her to die in such a horrible way but I also wouldn’t want her to be here without any family to speak of. She needs me and she’s been my main purpose for living for a long time.”

“How did you end up with Satomi?”

“My parents had no siblings and their parents had already passed away so we needed a guardian, otherwise we would’ve ended up in foster care. Some close friends of our parents, of the werewolf persuasion, spoke to Satomi on our behalf. My parents were both born wolves and not from around here originally so they had no real affiliation but they knew Satomi somewhat casually and liked her. She wasn’t one of those Alphas who constantly recruited, trying to strengthen their ranks. If anything, she’s quite selective about who she allows into her circle. Since she had no children of her own and her pack was relatively small, she accepted us. All it took was a simple fudged document proclaiming her our guardian in the event of our parents’ deaths and the deal was done. She was very kind and understanding of our situation. If there’s one thing Satomi understands, it’s loss. Even when Lori would demand more of her, pretending to be sick – even though we can’t get sick – so that she could get that bit of extra affection that she didn’t yet know how to ask for, Satomi would let her skip school, put cool cloths on her forehead and make her chicken soup. And she never forced me to talk about my feelings, which I really appreciated, but she let me know in her own way that she was there if I needed someone. Whenever she saw me struggling with my control, especially around our parents’ death anniversary, she would meditate with me.”

“Does meditation really help?” Liam asked, curious.

Brett nodded. “Yeah, it does.”

“Do you have to be Buddhist?”

Soft laughter followed his question. “No.”

“Hmm.” Liam chewed his lip for a minute before asking, “Can you teach me?”

Brett smiled gently. “Sure.”

A comfortable silence elapsed between them, one that neither of them was in a hurry to break.

Eventually, Liam said, “Satomi is family to you, isn’t she?”

Brett nodded. “She’s my Alpha too, of course, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. She showed me that you don’t have to be related to be a family. Family is more about the bond than blood.”

Liam nodded thoughtfully. “That’s how I feel about my dad. He’s not my _real_ dad but…he sorta is? It feels like he’s been around forever and mom’s the happiest I’ve ever seen her since he came into her life. I think they might even be trying to have a baby.”

“What makes you think that?”

“I hear noises coming from their room in the dead of night when they think I’m asleep. It’s getting more and more frequent. And I saw her eyeing baby clothes the other day when we were in town.”

Brett chuckled.

“Might be nice to have a baby brother or sister,” Liam mused.

“They can be a handful,” Brett admitted, “but they also enrich your life in a lot of ways.”

“Hmm.”

There was something weighing on Liam’s mind, something that he had never allowed himself to give voice to, not even to Mason, but in that moment, he wanted to with Brett.

“The way you feel about Satomi…do you think I’ll ever feel that way about Scott?”

Brett frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I resented him at first, for doing this to me, even though I knew that I would have died if he hadn’t. And there are perks to being a wolf, for sure, but some days, bad days, I wish he’d just let me fall. I know, it’s horrible and it would kill my mom to lose me but… This life, the things Scott and Stiles and the others deal with every single day? I don’t know if I can do it. I’m torn between wanting to be a good Beta to Scott, to make him proud of me, and wanting to get as far away from Beacon Hills as possible. I want to live long enough to go to college, maybe get married and have a couple of kids. To be a father to them the way my father wasn’t to me. And sometimes I wonder, where do I even fit in all of this? I’m Scott’s Beta, sure, but there are so many people above me on the totem pole. I don’t blame him for that, they’ve been his friends for years and I have Mason and my mom and dad who I would also put before anyone else, but it just puts things into perspective sometimes.

I can tell by listening to you that you would die for Satomi, just like you’d die for Lori, but I…I don’t know if I can do that for Scott. I don’t know if I’ll ever get there. I want to be loyal to him, committed to his cause, but if push came to shove and I had to choose between him and me, right now…”

“Liam.” Brett squeezed his hand gently. “Loyalty isn’t something that Scott can demand of you. No alpha can. Anyone who does or tries to is a dictator. Why do you think that wolves have the ability to leave one pack, leave the Alpha who bit them, and choose to join another? Just like you have to earn your place in his pack, Scott has to show you that he deserves your fealty. You cannot force your wolf to accept him as its alpha. That’s something that the wolf will do when it’s good and ready. I wouldn’t worry too much but if it’s really bothering you then you should talk to Scott about it. He’s a very understanding guy from what I’ve been told. Things are even more difficult for him than they would be for a born-wolf, especially since he never actually had an Alpha, so he’s making things up as he goes along. It’s a learning experience for the both of you. He won’t know what you need from him unless you tell him, though.”

“You would never leave Satomi, though, would you? You admire Scott, that much is obvious, and he’s a True Alpha which is apparently a big deal in Werewolfland but you would never leave her pack.”

Brett shook his head. “I’m in for life, hers or mine. Maybe even both. When you find the right fit for you, you’ll know it.”

“And if it’s not Scott?”

“Then we’ll just keep looking.”

Liam sighed, squeezing Brett’s hand gently in gratitude. “When did you get so wise, Tallbutt?”

“I always have been, _Dumbo_ ,” Brett retorted.

Liam smiled to himself. He hadn’t heard that nickname since he’d left the locker rooms of Devenford, nor used Brett’s. He never thought he could miss being called stupid.

They sat in companionable silence for a long time, breathing in the chill night air, listening to the distant sounds of cars and the dog across the street that kept glaring and barking at them.

Ultimately, it was Brett who spoke first.

“Mason’s coming.”

Liam cocked his ears and listened to his friend trudging sleepily down the hallway, then the stairs, where he almost tripped and cursed softly.

“I’d better get going,” Brett announced, standing. He pulled Liam up by the hand he still held and simply looked down at him for a few nerve-wracking seconds before saying, “You have my number.”

Liam nodded mutely.

“You should text me sometime.”

“Okay.”

When Brett leaned in, Liam felt his eyelashes automatically flutter; his lids beginning to drift close in anticipation. But Brett didn’t make it to his lips, instead planting a kiss atop the messy hair on his forehead.

 _“Liam?”_ a sleepy voice called softly from inside.

“See you,” Brett murmured, squeezing his hand one last time before releasing it and walking away.

Sighing wistfully, Liam turned and walked towards the front door, which was already opening.

“What are you doing out here?” Mason asked, rubbing his eyes.

Liam spared a quick glance over his shoulder but Brett was already out of sight, thankfully.

“Just getting some fresh air. I couldn’t sleep so I thought it might help.”

“Oh. It’s 2:00am though. You do realize that we have to be up in like four hours?”

“Better get back to bed quickly then!” Liam quipped, feeling unnaturally buoyant. He was pretty sure that he wasn’t going to sleep a wink but that was okay. He had more than enough energy bubbling beneath his skin to get him through the day.

As Liam closed the door behind them and reset the alarm, Mason asked calmly, “So what was Brett doing here?”

Liam froze in panic for a second before turning to his friend, feigning confusion. “What? Brett wasn’t here.”

“Oh please, spare me. I’d recognize that cologne anywhere, even with my generic human nose.”

“You’re hallucinating, Mase. Better get back to bed quickly before Chewbacca starts chasing you or something.”

“Chewy is people-friendly, you pleeb. Fine, keep your secrets. It’s not like I can’t just ask him myself,” he said flippantly over his shoulder before racing up the stairs to Liam’s room where his phone awaited.

“Mason!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Geezus, I finally get to move on! Hallelujah!


End file.
